Purisima bags sixth Finance Minister of the Year award

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima is FinanceAsia's 2015 Finance Minister of the Year, on the heels of the Philippines' financial performance compared with its regional peers.

This is the second successive year Purisima has bagged the award and the sixth under his belt, the Department of Finance said Monday.

"With our five-year average growth rate of 6.2 percent hitting the highest in 40 years, the turnaround project is complete. The Philippines, once the sick man of Asia, is now the region's resilient bright spot," Purisima said in an emailed statement.

Purisima accepted the award in a ceremony last January 27 in Hong Kong, the department said.

FinanceAsia is an international publication which covers investment banking, capital markets and strategic corporate finance in the Asia Pacific.

The Philippine debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio fell to 44.8 percent as of end-2015, with foreign debt minimized to 15.6 percent of GDP amid extended maturities, it said.

It also noted the government's tax collection has expanded to 13.7 percent in the first eleven months of 2015.

"(T)his shows you that our country is one that's bursting with potential. First, we are the youngest country in Asia. Second, we are developing sectors that are considered world-class, including the BPO (business process outsourcing) sector.

"We're now the world's fourth largest shipbuilding country – all because of a very strong and very skilled manpower sector," Purisima said in his acceptance speech.

"The country has used its expanding fiscal space to invest heavily, increasing the social services budget fivefold over five years and hitting its goal of spending 5 percent of GDP on infrastructure," the finance department said.

FinanceAsia noted the Philippines fared "relatively well in part because of its service industry focus, strong domestic consumption, government spending, and the steady flow of remittances from its diaspora of overseas workers."

Purisima has been recognized as Finance Minister of the Year six times in his six years as an economic manager under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III

For its $2-billion 25-year bond offering, the Philippines also won both the Best Philippines Deal and Best Sovereign Bond awards from FinanceAsia.

The awards reflected the country's "consistency... coupled with terrific timing and a tender switch that once again marked the sovereign out as one of the region's savviest borrowers," FinanceAsia.

"The Philippines has now become a 'touchstone for sovereign issuance in the region,'" it added. – With Jannielyn Ann Bigtas andJon Viktor Cabuenas/VS, GMA News