'Beyond buying local products, Pinoys should keep on learning to improve productivity'

Abola: Filipinos can also express their economic patriotism by raising their productivity by continuing to acquire new skills.

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

As Filipinos, it's easy enough to show our love for country--respect the flag, take the oath of allegiance, sing the national anthem properly. We may or may not know what a Filipino is but have we ever asked ourselves how we can express our economic patriotism? InterAksyon posed this question to economists and here are some of their answers. 

Dr. Victor Abola, Director of the Strategic Business Economics Program (SBEP) of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P): 

Quite apart from patronizing Filipino-made goods (I use Happy toothpaste, for example), I think it should mean that our economic actions benefit the entire economy especially the poor.

A very good manifestation of this patriotism is to keep on learning, and spreading it all around oneself, and to raise one's productivity (at the individual, company, government level).

It is well known in economic growth theory that the most important factor in raising productivity is advancement in knowledge (formal and informal education and training). [This is quite a task because there is no Pilipino word for productivity or efficiency.]

The other part of this is to ensure that the poor get a fair share of the benefits of this improved productivity and this may be accomplished by preventing the elite from appropriating these or removing the incentives to the poor to obtain these benefits (e.g., break up monopolies or cartels that are put up not only by overly powerful businessmen but also by politicians, especially at the local level).

Dr. Victor Abola is also an independent director of First Metro Securities and Brokerage Corp., and the First Metro Save and Learn mutual funds. He was the Chief of Party of the Fiscal Policy Analysis Activity of the Department of Finance, a project funded by the USAID in order to enhance policy analysis and revenue forecasting capabilities of DOF’s Domestic Finance Group. He finished his doctorate degree in Development Management from the University of Asia and the Pacific, where he also received his M.S. in Industrial Economics. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor ofScience in Commerce (major in Accounting) from the De La Salle University. 

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