BPO industry, 'di maaapektuhan ng pahayag ni Duterte na 'kakalas' sa US— Pernia

Naniniwala si Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia na walang magiging epekto sa business process outsourcing (BPO) industry ng Pilipinas ang naging pahayag ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte na puputulin na nito ang pakikipag-ugnayan sa Amerika sa larangan ng ekonomiya at militar.

Paliwanag ni Pernia, hindi talaga pagputol sa ugnayan sa Amerika ang nais sabihin ni Duterte. Sa halip, nais lang umano ng pangulo ang "rebalancing" sa kalakalan--hindi lang sa Kanlurang bahagi ng mundo kung hindi maging sa Asya, partikular sa China, na isang major economic player umano ngayon sa daigdig.

"He mentioned about separation. The way to understand that is what we are really going to do is to rebalance our economic relations from too much dependence from the West to the Asian region," ani Pernia.

"It's not separation. As I've said, you have to parse it as a rebalancing, as a reconstructuring of economic relations from too much dependence on the West," paliwanag nito.

Sinabi pa ng opisyal na malaki ang naitutulong sa bansa ng mga BPO company, na karamihan ay pagmamay-ari ng mga nakabase sa Amerika.

"BPOs will continue. BPOs will not be touched. They have provided us with foreign exchange and it's now even higher than or it's going to be higher than OFW [overseas Filipino worker] remittances," paliwanag ng opisyal.

Giit ni Pernia, ang Asya ang "growth area of the century."

"China is a major player in this growth area. And for a long time, we have not taken very seriously our economic relations with China. This time, we feel we should really engage with China stronger," paliwanag niya.

"In effect, we are really broadening our investment and trade base from too much dependence on the West to greater attention to the Asian region," dagdag ng opisyal.

Binigyan-diin pa niya na ang economic team ni Duterte ang may huling pasya tungkol sa mga patakaran ng bansa sa kalakalan.

"The President has a strong economic team, very solid economic team. And whatever economic pronouncement, it's really the economic team that makes the final say," patuloy ng kalihim.

Dagdag pa ni Pernia, "We will maintain our ties with the West, Europe, with Japan of course, and the US, the Latin America, and even African countries. The more relations you have in different parts of the world, the better for the economy." -- FRJ, GMA News