The business community is optimistic that tourism sector will be able to rebound this summer as government ramps up its vaccination program to the provinces even as it cautions that the reopening of economy must be done with caution.
ALTHOUGH business groups are fully supportive of the move of the government to reopen the economy, however, they wanted to do it with extreme caution, along with faster rollout of vaccines especially in the provinces, and upgrade of healthcare system to better address any public health concerns that may arise in the future.
Summer jump
In a press briefing, Benedicto V. Yujuico, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, projected that the tourism sector, hardest hit by the pandemic, will be able to rebound by summer as more people would be vaccinated by then.
“With a more aggressive rollout of vaccination in the provinces, by summer, domestic tourism should already begin picking up,” he said during the launching of the 47th Philippine Business Conference & Expo (PBC&E).
“I know many families are already gearing up to go to the beaches, and this will be good for many of our small enterprises,” Yujuico added.
Safety protocols
Despite the positive outlook, Yujuico stressed the need to maintain health and safety protocols when reopening the establishments.
“While we must be more proactive than reactive, we should be more cautious so as not to revert to the strict lockdowns. There must be better risk management in the safe reopening of businesses,” he said.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a separate briefing on Thursday that establishments must secure personnel tasked with monitoring and observing the minimum public health standards to ensure safety.
“This is a reminder, especially for malls, as the mobility restrictions ease,” he noted.
Herd immunity
In relation to reopening, Jeffrey Ng, chairman of the 47th PBC&E, said the business group is renewing its call for the government to aim at achieving herd immunity or about 80-percent vaccination rate.
“We think that it is possible to do this in the next six or seven months. The government should make available already tens of millions of vaccines, make it accessible to…our countrymen, especially in rural, remote areas of the country,” he said.
Stronger healthcare
Moving forward, Yujuico stressed the need to strengthen the health systems of the country.
“We are an archipelago of 7,000 plus islands, which makes the rollout of vaccination a challenge. But this also serves as a natural break against thespread of the virus as it creates self-contained bubbles, thereby granting our public health systems more space to be battle-ready to deal with any future pandemic,” he added.
47th PBC&E
The 47th PBC&E, which happens on November 17 and 18, will also be the chance for the business community to put all presidential aspirants under the microscope to present their agendas in speeding up economic recovery.
The conference will conclude with the presentation of the business sector’s wish-list to President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The business community is looking forward to hearing and listening from our presidential aspirants their economic agenda and how they plan to rebuild our economy,” Ng said.
“I am happy that we have almost all of them confirmed. We really hope we could have all of them in this forum,” Ng added.
The business assembly will put on a spotlight the strategies to bring back the economy to its pre-pandemic strong-growth footing.
Innovation
This year’s biggest business conference will carry the theme “Innovation.ph: Economic Recover for All” that will highlight practice and shared vision to reset and rebuild the economy through innovation and pioneering technologies.
Yujuico stressed the role of innovation and technology as catalyst to hasten economic development and build a resilient and inclusive economy.
“As a business chamber, we have a major role to play in creating the ecosystem where the culture of innovation can flourish among our people, especially the youth and business enterprises, particularly MSME,” Yujuico said during the media kick-off, Thursday.
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