Businessman Enrique Razon Jr., chairman and chief executive of port developer International Container Terminal Services Inc., on Monday proposed the development of an infrastructure economy to get the projects off the ground.
Razon, speaking during the Asean Business and Investment Summit, said the government should create an infrastructure economy in the interim to improve the general direction of the Philippine economy.
“We have to focus and invest in infrastructure. I’m sure that many other countries have experienced the same issues like the Philippines. Now, we have many things to worry about,” Razon said.
He said ICTSI itself was an active participant in “leading the Philippine ports development and in many countries.”
Razon said while some countries were ahead and others lagged behind the Philippines, transparency would not always guarantee success and was not the main reason some countries succeeded and others did not.
“Transparency is a tricky thing. To us, what is important is to achieve our objective. If we focus on governance and transparency, we won’t get what needs to be done,” he said.
He said democracy would not ensure the progress of infrastructure development. “Tying democracy to development, I don’t think that works. Many Asean countries are not democratic,” Razon said.
Razon said what needed to be done was to build infrastructure projects like ports, airport, roads, subway and others.
The ICTSI executive also called on fellow Asean companies to “get the standards together.”
“My hope for this administration is to change culture on how to get things done,” he said.