Ex-US president Bill Clintonfaced an audience of elite Filipinos Wednesday and implored them to convince their countrymen abroad to return and help out the country.
“Create a climate where everybody [participates]. Get more people to come home," he said to a crowd in Manila Hotel that included his former Georgetown classmate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Rapidly growing economies like China, India and Vietnam all benefited from a reverse brain drain, when educated expatriates returned to lend their expertise.
The Philippines needs to reorient the mindset of its people through education and access to employment to keep the population from migrating to other places in search of better paying jobs, Clinton said.
"Filipinos have done great around the world, and I think that as an economic model, it's really good for individual people and families," he said, referring to the 8.5 million-11 million overseas Filipino workers who transferred more than $19.7 billion to their relatives in the Philippines last year.
“But I think you need to try to get more people to come home. We all need certain things to remind us of the big mental and emotional factors that impact a country’s greatness," Clinton said.
“You're smart enough to do it, you have a huge population, and you have massive natural resources. I have a feeling that you’re at the dawn of a whole new age of your history here," Clinton added.
But the Philippines must “attempt to get everybody in school. Give access to universities and access to [domestic] job markets," he said.
Citing the case of Rwanda, a country that made headlines in 1994 after the assassination of its president sparked a genocide that killed 500,000 to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Clinton said the eastern central African country was able to spur its economy by more than three times in nearly a decade.
The fact that Rwandan adults offered one day a week to work for free, cleaning the streets, made a big difference in the mindset of the people, Clinton stressed.
Don’t worry
Filipinos should not worry about why the Philippines has not yet reached its potential, he explained, replying to a question from moderator Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN.
"What Filipinos should worry about are the basic ideas of how to get there," said Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States.
He noted the tremendous economic growth of China and Singapore, saying he wasn’t surprised because Singapore is a much smaller country than the Philippines, and China is an authoritarian state.
The greatest challenge the Philippines faces now is “getting completely out of the overhang of the global financial crisis."
By trying to maintain a level of over 7 percent in terms of economic growth for five-six years, the country “can generate enough surplus cash" that, in turn, may be used to create infrastructure development-supported economic growth, he said.
Credit to: GMANews.tv
Hillary Clinton's visit in Philippines on November 2009
MANILA- US SECRETARY of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in the Philippines on a visit to show support for the country's fight against extremists and its efforts to rebuild after three major storms rocked the islands.
Mrs Clinton arrived in the capital Manila on Thursday from Singapore and was meeting with top Filipino officials as well as touring US-funded disaster relief projects. Her one-day trip also will focus on countering Muslim extremists who are operating in the country's south.
Despite years of US military training and assistance, Filipino troops have struggled to contain the militants, who have recently intensified attacks, blowing up bridges, firing mortar shells and setting off roadside bombs. -- AP
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