Four powerful businesswomen report big successes in 2007 – and are not afraid of what 2008 will bring. An excerpt of the article from Philippine Daily Inquirer below:

Tessie Sy
(SM Group) Retail, banking, property development

“We are confident that the Philippine economy has sufficient momentum to cope with the external challenges facing it such as the weakness in the US and European markets and higher inflation due to the unrelenting increase in crude oil prices. On that note, we decided to pursue our expansion plans across all our core businesses. Both our retail and mall businesses will be expanding outside of Metro Manila, while the banks will complete their consolidation of recent acquisitions. The property group will launch new residential projects, and perhaps break ground for the sports arena and the Radisson hotel which will both be at the Mall of Asia complex. We will continue to sell condo units and beach and country club shares in Pico de Loro. All these will cost the whole group about P26 billion in capital expenditures.”

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The World Bank believes it has the answers. The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s banner story today shows a list of measures the International Finance Corp., the private sector development arm of the World Bank, is urging the government to adopt.

Do you agree with the IFC? It says the Philippines is weak especially in the areas of starting a business, property registration and ability to access credit.

In a nutshell, IFC suggests that the government should:

The proposal on the credit information bureau is particularly interesting because at the moment, lenders are keeping their own counsel on who is creditworthy or not. Why would they share that kind of information with their peers, no matter what they say publicly about “working together for the good of the industry.” The absence of a good database on potential borrowers makes it easier or bad borrowers to get a loan and raises banks’ past due loans.

Who is the end loser here? The banks to a certain extent because their image gets hurt, but more so good borrowers who get higher interest rates and a longer time to process loans because of more documentary requirements and credit history checking. At least, that’s how bankers explain the situation.

Unfortunately, getting that reform done will depend on Congress, where the road to an important bill can twist and turn like a supertyphoon dancing with another supertyphoon.

Some eye-popping figures came out of Cartoon Network’s latest study on Filipino children and their lifestyles.

P37 billion – spending power of kids in their “tweenies”, or kids seven to 14 years old

46% — of Filipino kids are now using the Internet versus 26% in the 2005 study

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Big business is upbeat on the economy. Are small business owners feeling the same way?

MANILA, Philippines–The business community remains upbeat about the Philippines’ prospects amid the challenges posed by globalization and the controversies in the political arena, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said Wednesday.

The optimism is being fueled to a significant degree by the partnership between the public and private sectors that is essential to sustaining the country’s rapid economic growth, the PCCI said.

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