Secretary of Finance (Department of Finance of the Republic of the Philippines)

INTERVIEW WITH THE HONORABLE MARGARITO TEVES, FILIPINNES FINANCE SECRETARY.

1. What is the current status of the Philippine´s economy?

The status is improving especially during the last six (6) months, the economy grew more than what we had anticipated especially during the last quarter of 2007 where the economy has show a growth of 7.5 percent, this is the fastest growth we have achieved in the last twenty years.

A fair broadscast of the year which is between 6.1 and 6.7%, is something we really think is very interesting because as you know we are a very large population in the philipinnes, we have a situation where the economy is growing over the 7% but the first beneficiary is the people who is on the top. We need to develop the economy by generating additional revenues.

2. What are the most important strategic sectors in the Philipines and what are the new upcoming sectors in the Philipines economy?

The real drivers of the Philipines economy involve the Mining Sector, Bussines processing, outsourcing and tourism. In the case of the tourism sector, it is growing but not as fast as that of other countries like China, Vietnam, Cambodia. We still have a long way to go, however, we believe that the continuing emphasis on providing the state-of-the-art airport and telecomunication facilities will aid us in increasing the number of tourists and visitors.

3.What are you dong with regards to the Promotion of foreign investment into the country: Incentives and advantages offered and positioning of the Philippines in the region with regards to foreign investment.

What we need to do is to be able to generate more investment is to continue improving our macro economic fundamentals. To do this, we need to keep on working on our fiscal sector, which is directly involved. We need to show that we can generate more revenues from taxes. We also need to put up more infrastuctures in the Philippines so we can attract more investors and then we can carry on to put up projects, these investors are both local and foreign. Specifically, our foreign investors will need more legal power and that we will try to make avaiilable for them. Our GPD now is almost 2.5%, probably at the end of 2010 we can push up this rate to 4.5% ro 5%. Goverment will try to recruit the necessary macro economic fundamentals to provide a good enviroment for the private sector.

4. How important are your (Philipines) relations with the USA?

In terms of trade and investment, they are the largest group of investors we have as same as Japan. They export and suport us in most of our infrastuctural projects. United States for us is one of our most important associates in developing bussinesses as well as making gains. In the United Stated, there are a large number of overseas Filipinos that have attained American Citicenship already and they are one of the largest contributors of our economic relationship. The United States plays a very important part in our exports but we can not forget other countrys such as China, India, Malasia or Europe, we consider them as very important partners in terms of trade.

6. What are the future Outlooks for the Philipines: Priorities and objetives for the years to come?

For us to be competitive, we need to continue investing in human capital, Sanitary services and Infrastucures that will provide us solutions to develop better Social Services as a backbone for economic development.

5. On a personal level: Your Background and biggest achievments

The opportunitty to access an international education first in Manila and after in Spain, London and United States provide me a universal point of view.

My political Career started on 1987 when I was elected as Congressional representative of the 3rd district of Negros Oriental. I participate as lawmaker in the Republic Act 7221 that liberalized the entry and scope of operations of foreing banks in the country, established the OverseasInvestment Fund to provide incentives to overseas workers & reduce foreign debt. I took part in crafting the New Central Bank in creating the Cooperative Developement Authority and the restructuring of the excise tax on petroleoum products.

While in congress I become chairman of the committee on rural development and the committee on economic affairs.

Before assuming the top post of the Department of Finance, I was Ceo of the Land Bank of Philippines since September 2000. Now, I wish to do the best for my country.