KOREA is now considered as the sixth-biggest trading partner of our country, with trade value estimated at $6 billion. This was not the case a few decades ago.

At the start, let me underline that the strongest rationale for building a growth strategy with Korea is the strong “people-to-people relationship” that binds the two countries. More than one million Koreans come to the Philippines yearly on short- to medium-term stay. There are reportedly close to 200,000 Filipinos residing in Korea in various occupations.

When I first studied Korea in the 1970s, it was in the context of being an international manager of Unilever trying to start a business operation there.

During that time, only one foreign brand was allowed to be sold in stores and groceries. That was “Tang,” and we were so envious of General Foods then.

Korea was hardly an “economic tiger” at the time. It was at the stage of raising the standard of living of its people from among the lowest in the region. Korea was a relatively closed economy then but with dreams to join the global players via technology, infrastructure, stability for competitiveness as enumerated by good leadership.

Korea could be described at the time as being “a nation in a hurry to join the NICs.” Koreans proved to be the champion “pole vaulters to prosperity.”

Many will say that Korea not only achieved its targets but exceeded them.

Korea achieved it by working on improving its productivity, which is the real meaning of competitiveness, and by providing a clear strategic direction for industries, agriculture and services which paved the way for investors’ confidence. Korea assigned a senior minister to devote special attention to solving problems encountered by investors.

The challenge for the government down to local level was to provide a united approach to providing an enabling environment for firms to increase their productivity to the highest possible level.

Then, Korea could start playing the game of being a global player—as in electronics, motor vehicles, shipbuilding, information technology, etc.

Korea’s mantra is that government agencies should not be hustlers but enablers if they are to lift Korea from the throes of conflicts. If we want to know how to draw out the best from investors, foreign and local, for the general benefit of the country, Korea is a good place to start.

There is no doubt that the gallant performance of our Expeditionary Forces in response to the United Nations’ call for assistance in the 1950s helped bring to an early end the Korean War. It resulted in a good image for the Philippines among the Korean people. In the field of diplomacy, the nature of the people-to-people relationship is a strong factor that ambassadors pursue to achieve improved bilateral relations.

Every year, the Republic of Korea marks the end of the Korean War. In the UK, they hold a ceremony in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, officiated by the archbishop of Canterbury and attended by the royal family with the diplomatic corps. The ambassador of the Philippines shares center stage with the UK foreign minister and the Korean ambassador, together with representatives from other countries that participated significantly in the Korean War.

This ceremony is repeated in many other capitals of the world where the words such as “10th Battalion Combat Team,” “General Ramos, General Abcede,” and “the thousands of brave Filipino soldiers” who gave their lives for democracy in that country are cited in speeches and articles written by those too young to remember.

With that goodwill now ingrained and acknowledged by the grateful Koreans, there is an excellent opportunity to upgrade our relationship to one of a truly strategic partnership.

There is much to learn from the Korean experience of “pole vaulting to prosperity” and I understand that Korea is willing to help us with the lessons learnt from the “Miracle of the Han River” that made Korea the 12th biggest economy in the world.

We have to start by defining the vision that will be most meaningful and realistically achievable in the foreseeable future. This is similar to the exercise conducted recently by a group of Eminent Persons in Asean and Korea last year where I was privileged to represent the Philippines.

The Eminent Persons made economic cooperation as their centerpiece but included the other pillars of shared values, such as Education, Environment, and People-to-People Relations or Fellowship, as the other cornerstones of the Vision.

The Asean-Korean visioning may be regional in context but much can be learned from them even in the context of establishing specific bilateral matters. Bilateral cooperation can help deepen the growth prospects of partner countries rather than regional cooperation and integration.

The latter may be burdened by many conflicting issues that require establishing institutions that are difficult to manage, especially in a widely differing state of development of the many countries in the region.

Consider the following distinctive strengths of Republic of Korea:

I submit that the government initiative to streamline public administration for better governance, reduced graft and irregularities, especially in the light of high-speed economic upgrades, is one model to be emulated by the Philippines.

Korea placed emphasis on having a Ministry of Public Administration under a senior minister whose mandate is to improve the quality of public sector performance and the quality of public servants. Korea’s economic board is the nerve center of the planning and achievement of economic targets, highly regarded by the business sector for their intellectual abilities, integrity, with excellent track records in business, finance and economics and with the knack for moving forward as a team.

The high-caliber government team launched an e-government campaign less than eight years ago that brought government closer to the people and promoted local government units to levels never achieved before. The e-government program did not only strengthen government; it strengthened the constituents by enabling them to participate in nation-building.

Science and technology advances brought Korea to the forefront of the knowledge economy. High-technology programs were pursued both domestically and in advanced countries abroad, which resulted in advances in energy, agriculture, infrastructure, IT applications for the public and other service industries.

Financing of development projects was undertaken by expanding sources from abroad and domestically as new products and liberalization policies, promoting securities companies and increased savings rate were introduced, backed up by stern but consistent financial policies with investment environment made more robust.

With every step taken, personal incomes and the rate of savings improved, followed by more efficient tax collection and better ratings given by international agencies of their overall financial standing.

The Republic of Korea has initiated a Multi-Industry Clusters (MIC) Program. The main concept is to identify and support certain sites and relevant industry sectors (agriculture, industry, manufacturing services), renewable energy and ecotourism in a manner tailor-made to the region. These will have to be a link between the assets and skill in that place, and the product/services required by the world, synergized by competitive logistics corridors with Knowledge-Based support.

For the Philippines, this initiative can be the launch pad for take-off in certain regions for Logistics-enabled Services/Industries. Some of the sunrise industries/services that will become global players as a result of competitive logistics in the region are: Eco-tourism; Agribusiness; Health/Wellness/Retirement; Eco-mining; Manufacturing; Electronics; IT-Enabled Services; Value Chain Materials.

If properly harnessed, these sunrise sectors can help close the employment gap, which currently stands at 15 million jobs.

The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) has initiated a PIP [Policy Improvement Project], which involves a master plan to develop a competitive logistics corridor in Luzon where most of our key gateways to the rest of world are located. The cost of logistics is high—about 20 percent of total costs of goods or services, since the majority of the multimodal logistics chain remains suboptimal. Despite its weaknesses, Luzon is responsible for about half of the country’s gross domestic product.

A roadmap to achieve a coordinated development of multimodal logistics for transport of people and goods will hasten the growth of logistics-enabled opportunities. This means that in the future, we will be talking in the magnitude of Pearl River Delta of China or the Han River Delta of Korea.

Other critical elements to building a framework of strategic partnership may take the form of harnessing more extensively the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is being elevated to a subregional FTA by both APEC and Asean.

Another critical area is the Multilateralization of the Chiang Mai Initiative whose broad structure had been generally agreed upon by the Finance Ministers. We need to see specific actions from this group in times of need, such as during the global financial crisis where bilateral swap arrangements could have been considered.

It is the person-to-person relationship between our two countries that continues to mature with the consequent improvements in mutual trust and openness as we approach the broad range of cooperation topics, which include political security and the socio-cultural issues.

When we look back on the Korean experience, the pursuit of continuous improvement has become its way of life. If we want to be productive, to be competitive, we need to persistently instill the right values that would promote these in each and every Filipino.

I am reminded of President Barack Obama’s statement in his book “Audacity of Hope”: “We need both cultural transformation and government action—a change in values and a change in policy—to promote the kind of society we want.”

We need to collaborate with all sectors to pursue our dream to keep pace with our more progressive neighbors. NCC is at the forefront of private-public sectors cooperating in policy setting and consistent good execution with continuous improvements.

As we learn a lesson from the Geese wizard, “It is good to soar to excellence like an eagle, but it is better to fly as a flock of geese”—we fly farther—leave none behind. And get there faster and gain the most benefit for the country.

By Cesar B. Bautista
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted: 02/06/2011