* This is my article in BusinessWorld last December 11, 2018.
Singapore — Freedom means mobility and more mobility
means more freedom. The modern symbols of mobility are comfortable and fast
cars, buses, motorcycles, airplanes, fast crafts and roll-on/roll-off (RORO)
ships.
I am attending here the official launching of the ASEAN
Prosperity Initiative (API) today at Intercontinental Singapore. API is
pioneered by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) based in
Kuala Lumpur and API used to be the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) South East
Asia.
The launch features the publication of the newest reports
by IDEAS: (1) ASEAN Economic Integration Report Card, and (2) ASEAN-EU Free
Trade Agreement (FTA).
Travel from Manila to Singapore and the rest of ASEAN
member countries is much easier now because of previous air travel
liberalization policies, increased airline competition, and visa-free travel
for 30 days or less.
The Philippines is among the laggards in East Asia in
optimizing its tourism potentials. More than 7,500 islands and islets, lots of
white sand beaches and islands, big mountains and waterfalls, nice golf courses
and entertainment, and we got only six million foreign tourists in 2016 — about
one-half of those going to Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore , one-fourth those
in Malaysia. In tourism receipts, Philippines got only one-fifth of those going
to Thailand (see Table 1).
The bulk of the Philippines’ carrier departures (take
offs) were domestic flights and passengers. We need to attract more foreign
airlines and carriers that will bring in more foreign visitors and investors.
The same can be said for other ASEAN economies,
especially the poorer ones like Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
In a paper published by IDEAS titled Economic Benefits of
ASEAN Single Aviation Market, Adli Amirullah made this projection on the
importance of more aviation liberalization (see Table 2).
Mr. Amirullah summarized the important policy reforms
needed: (1) Liberalization through the ASEAN Single Aviation Market (ASAM) has
already benefited millions of people in the region via more competition; (2)
More benefits will be achieved if ASAM is fully implemented; (3) The biggest
markets will be the biggest winners, particularly Indonesia and Philippines;
(4) Specific steps are needed to advance ASAM, like prioritizing full
implementation of ASEAN community carriers.
The liberalization should not be limited to city-city
partnerships between two countries. Instead, an ASEAN-based airline should also
be allowed to hop to other destinations of the Philippines after landing in
Manila or Cebu before flying back. The same way, Philippines-based airlines
should be allowed to hop to other destinations of neighboring countries after
landing in capital cities before flying back home. This will optimize airline
loyalty and related schemes.
Meanwhile, wind-solar lobbyist and businessman Eddie
O’Connor resumed his attacks against me with his recent letter in BusinessWorld
(“There is a well-known syndrome for coal lovers. It is called carbophilia,”
published on Dec. 9). His parochial mind cannot comprehend that it is not me or
anyone else in this country that advocates and implements more coal use for
electricity generation in the region; it is the people and governments
themselves: in China, coal accounts for 67% of 6,495 terawatt hours (TWH)
production in 2017; India 76% of 1,497 TWH; Indonesia 58% of 260 TWH, Australia
61% of 259 TWH; S. Korea 46% of 572 TWH, Taiwan 47% of 270 TWH. My longer
response to his letter will be posted in my blog as I do not want to further
use this newspaper’s space to respond to marginal minds promoting expensive,
subsidy-dependent and marginally-producing energy sources. [Mr. O’Connor also
contributed a piece in today’s Opinion page. — Ed.]
More competition, more choices for the people.
Governments should prioritize this as an overriding concern when they craft new
policies and regulations — in land, sea and air transportation, in energy and
other sectors.
---------------
See also:
BWorld 271, More smokers and drinkers needed to fund more UHC? December 10, 2018
BWorld 272, The ASEAN Prosperity Initiative, December 11, 2018
BWorld 273, UAAP basketball tickets and Philippines inflation, December 22, 2018
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