In\nits latest World Economic Outlook report, the International Monetary\nFund (IMF) sees Vietnam\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita\novertaking that of the Philippines starting this year. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IMF projects Vietnamese GDP per capita to be US$3,498 in 2020 versus the Philippines\u2019 US$3,373. It has been a long but steady climb. Vietnam\u2019s income per capita was just 83% of the Philippines\u2019 in 1980 so it took four decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GDP\nper capita is just one of many indicators of national development and\nnot even the best one at that. It doesn\u2019t say anything about how\nthe gains of this economic output are distributed between Filipinos\nnor between Filipinos and foreigners. It can also be artificially\nboosted such as with an uptick in infrastructure spending, as the\nDuterte administration has been doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still,\nVietnam overtaking the Philippines is significant. And it\u2019s not\njust because of the huge difference in COVID response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nDuterte administration’s COVID response is a factor but really just\nmade the inevitable happen earlier. Vietnam famously responded well\nto the pandemic and was able to keep its economy growing even if at a\nslower rate. In contrast, the Duterte administration’s poor and still\ntepid response has caused the worst economic collapse in the region\nand indeed in the country’s history. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nwas enough to make Vietnam overtake the Philippines only because\nVietnam has been closing the gap with the Philippines for years and\nwas already on the cusp of overtaking us when the pandemic broke out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\nis of course a lesson here to greatly improve the country\u2019s\npandemic response. The administration taking so long to respond and,\neven then, being so sparing in its response just made the problem\nbigger and is making recovery more difficult. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ndeeper lesson though is looking at why Vietnam was able to catch up\nto begin with. Its rapid and sustained economic growth doesn\u2019t\nactually come from simply opening up its economy and seemingly\nembracing the free market. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previously\npoorer Vietnam has been implementing a state-led development strategy\nfor decades. It\u2019s the sort of non-neoliberal model that our\neconomic managers are too blind to even consider. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which\nis why the Philippine economy has been recklessly liberalized and\nprivatized according to free market dogma. This has eroded domestic\nagriculture and industry and made the country over-reliant on\nexternal sources of growth like remittances, government spending,\nforeign investment, and debt. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These\nare not sustainable sources of growth. Which also explains why, for\ninstance, the economy was already slowing for three consecutive years\neven before COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\ncontrast, Vietnam has been opening up its economy while ensuring\nstate ownership or control of strategic enterprises in agriculture,\nmining, telecommunications, railways, chemicals, electricity, water,\noil, cement, steel, and other heavy industries as well as in banking\nand finance. Foreign investment is seen as a means to national\ndevelopment — not, as in the Philippines, an end in itself. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their\neconomic growth has then been more broad-based, robust and\nsustainable. The extent to which it has been equitable is another set\nof issues entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nany case, our economic managers would do well to stop being blinded\nby their neoliberal dogma and start taking a more strategic view of\nnational development. Without radical changes in our economic\npolicies the Philippines will just keep getting left further behind.\nBut, of course, not without keeping a few very rich.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
Our economic managers would do well to stop being blinded by their neoliberal dogma and start taking a more strategic view of national development. Without radical changes in our economic policies the Philippines will just keep getting left further behind.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,2050],"tags":[2218,2378,364,363,96,693,234,116,2379,2376],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10410,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions\/10410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}