A NEW OUTLOOK ABOUT GLOBALIZATION

Let’s face it; we are already stuck with globalization for now, since we have already signed the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement. I say “for now”, because there may still be a chance for us to withdraw or to ask for a moratorium, but it might be an uphill climb. Is globalization good or bad for us as a country? While it seems that the general sentiment is that it is bad for us, there is a new thinking emerging that we could still turn it into a good thing, provided that we would work hard as one nation to make it good for all of us.

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Looking back, our national leaders made the very hopeful assumption that our products and services are going to be competitive in the world market, and if not, that there would be “safety nets” that could absorb the impacts of the failures to compete. Unfortunately however, as we know it now, both assumptions failed, and now we are suffering from closed factories and lost jobs. Up ahead, we are hoping that we could solve the unemployment problem by creating new jobs, but that is really too far from happening, because without new factories and other worksites, there could be no new jobs created.

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Going straight to the point, there is really no way around globalization except to become more competitive. Certainly we could try to get out of the WTO Agreement even if temporarily, and we could also try to bargain for a moratorium, but after this period of relaxation, we still have to contend with the challenge of globalization again. Note that I used the term “challenge” and not the term “problem”, because that should be our attitude. Truth to tell, our attitude towards anything in life depends on whether we prefer to look at the bright side or at the dark side.

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There are many ways of defining globalization, but to put it in simple terms, it is the global movement that allows a trading country to sell any product or service in any other country, without any tariff barriers, and restricted only by its ability to compete in terms of price, quality, delivery and all other commercial factors that would give it a competitive advantage. In other words, a trading country in this kind of environment has to play in the same game that every other trading country does. With this in mind, we really have no choice but to make our own products and services competitive.

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In response to this very pressing need, I am setting up a new business that will provide marketing and advertising services to Filipino companies that would like to expand their business into the global markets. As a start, I am now getting in touch with my former colleagues in our embassies and consulates abroad, being a former Foreign Information Attaché (FIA) and Foreign Service Officer (FSO) myself. This is actually a welcome idea for them, because development diplomacy is really part of their work.

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If you are looking for the biggest concentration of experts in one building who could all assist in expanding to foreign markets, go the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City. Mentioning only some of the people that I personally know, the short list is already a high powered line-up. On top of my list is Bobby De Ocampo my former neighbor in Annandale, Virginia who is now AIM President. Not necessarily in my degree of “closeness” to them, my list also includes Poch Macaranas and Rod Severino, both whom were my former bosses at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) when they worked there as Undersecretaries. Poch was the top honcho for the 1996 APEC Meeting here. Rod later on became the top honcho of the ASEAN when he was elected Secretary General.

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I did not go to the AIM, but at least once a week, I always have the chance to work with a number of its professors. In the process, I learn a lot from them, and it is as if I am already taking up a continuing course in business management. Among these genius friends are Prof. Tommy Lopez, Prof. Felix Bustos and Prof. Vic Limlingan.

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Poch, Rod, Tommy, Felix and Vic are not salesmen. They will not sell your products and services directly, but just like the wise sages of yore, they can tell you what to do, and where to go. For my part, I am willing to get down to the selling level, promoting products abroad for my clients. On a smaller scale, I am doing that locally too, by promoting the products of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) among the multinational corporations (MNCs). We don’t know what lies ahead of us in the area of globalization, but the only way for us to win is to start playing the game.