Political Outcomes

PH services sector seen to gain from ASEAN integration


Rod Severino, Omkar Shrestha, and Jay Menon at the book launch

Jayant Menon, ADB lead economist

Link to the article:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/03/21/14/ph-services-sector-seen-gain-asean-integration

Summary of the article
          Asian Development Bank's economist for trade and regional integration, Jayant Menon, said that ASEAN is being advantageous to the Philippines as he found that the country's communication skills and education system within the area of services were better compared to other ASEAN countries; however, he said that too many workers going abroad will not be good in the long run. Menon added that the ASEAN Economic Community allowing low skilled workers to be traded among ASEAN countries won't be good for both local and foreign countries as workers can cause problems or receive unequal treatment. The area of agriculture is also getting better and as a whole, Menon said that although there are many things to improve on, he hopes those to be finished by 2015.

My thoughts
          It is a great idea to put a certain date on a goal, in this case improvement in a country, because although the set goal(s) can't be done by the set date, all the process, efforts and work done will still continue and get done as that is what almost everyone will hope. It is true that many of the Philippines' workers are working abroad and they are helpful in the Philippines' country as remittances allow flow of money. However, the bad side is that I have heard some of the workers getting unequal treatments because they are either low skilled or unaware of the laws. I agree that the Philippines is improving alot on services as education level increases. However, it is also true that most of those highly skilled people are aiming to go abroad for work which will not be good for the long term effects because if this continues to happen, less contribution of their knowledge will be spread to their home country. Although some view that 2015 is to soon for all the goals to happen, I believe that things will sort out well quickly and goals will be reached faster than people think.