PHILIPPINES: a rapidly growing market

Among the ASEAN countries, the Philippines are on the rise, together with Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, and are among those that offer the most interesting opportunities to Italian companies from an internationalization perspective. The country, which not surprisingly falls within the so-called Next Eleven, i.e. the eleven emerging markets identified by Goldman Sachs as having the highest growth potential, could become the largest economy in South-East Asia by 2050 and the 14th worldwide within the same year.

Thanks to a population of about 104 million (second largest market in terms of population in ASEAN, after Indonesia), a certain political stability, the implementation of important reforms by the Government and a solid economy , the Philippines have been embarking on an important growth path for some years: in 2012 the GDP grew by a little over 6% and in 2013 it should remain stable and reach 6.2%.

The high propensity to consume of the local population (domestic consumption represents 70% of the national GDP) represents a formidable growth driver that allows the Asian country to continue along this path; moreover, the Philippines is heavily dependent on imports, since they are not yet able to count on a developed industry and first-rate technological capacity.

The business possibilities are enormous and are registered in a large variety of sectors: building materials, electronics, renewable energies, machinery for food processing, information technology, telecommunications, tourism, clothing, agri-food, franchising, residential construction, business services processing outsourcing represent just some of the potentially explosive sectors for Made in Italy companies.

Manlius Urbanus

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