PHILIPPINES: a rapidly growing market

Among the ASEAN countries, the Philippines is on the rise, together with Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, and is 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 that present a higher growth potential, could become the largest economy in South-East Asia by 2050 and the 14th globally within the same year.

Thanks to a population of around 104 million inhabitants (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 has been embarking on an important growth path for some years: in 2012 the GDP grew by a figure just above 6% and in 2013 it should remain stable and reach 6.2%.

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

The business opportunities are enormous and are found in a large variety of sectors: construction materials, electronics, renewable energy, food processing machinery, IT, 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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