Business as You Shall

Doing business in a competitive environment, in a setting such as Davao City, may sound redundant like a memorandum circular. Having been cited many times as a decent place to bond both business and pleasure, Davao City is one place where investing is a venture that could potentially intensify business opportunities en masse since the past decade.

Some local investors, however, find it Herculean to compete in this kind of atmosphere. The competition circulating in a whole range of income-generating establishments might be too steep a ladder to ascend, especially among small-scale manufacturers. And since the global recession is still sweating profusely even in the assembly line of our local economy, investors are constantly redirecting their priorities more in a survival mode.

It isn't unlikely that local stocks would suffer hoards of jitters from a distant comptroller, as distant as the US Federal Reserve, in buying more bonds only to temper, according to them, the appetite of the global market out of that tectonic peso-dollar relationship. And perhaps in response to it, commercial banks in the country are dealing with their own rules somehow for a potential tightening of capitalization measures so as to accommodate the international community's request of maintaining the financial stability worldwide.

Although this may not affect a local entrepreneur initially if he intends to do business in a bubbling economy, but by eventually increasing the amortization, so to speak, of capital, whether globally-induced or locally-imposed, as has been the drive considering some of the risks involved, it may drain some of his options for a continuity. As in the state of our sometimes ill-advised and ill-equipped agribusinesses, since this is still, among the many, a serviceable variable in our economic survival despite enticements of industrialization.

In the first half of 2010 alone, the country's agri-food industry of fruits, beverages and vegetables, to name a few, has exported nearly $1.35 billion, although 3.77 percent lower compared to 2009, but still the government found it necessary to boost the production of surplus food as a crucial move in its sustainability while keeping tabs of the ever-expanding global economy.

Even call centers are now accommodating economic reruns on how the global market impacts some of our local industrial imperatives. Just as our own version of accommodating foreign companies investing in our turf would somehow challenge some of our already-established provisions of utilizing our own market turf.

Recently, a group of 60 Korean nationals expressed satisfaction over investing in a lumber business, not only in the Davao region but also in its nearby provinces of Compostela and Caraga, with a staggering P200 million worth of capital purportedly in the books, which is also in keeping with the increasing demands of real estate properties itself with an annual capital of up to P160 million over the last two years and counting. Figures that could significantly acquiesce local investors in to realigning some of their priorities beyond the confines of their individual incomes and interests.

But perhaps the government should at least take pains to police certain policies in maintaining that time-honored code of competition between our local investors and their foreign counterparts. Not even the Constitution can guarantee at times with its 60-40 ownership in favor of our local patrons as far as investment go as this would overlap in various stages of the trade. "There's got to be a government policy of a better pronounced forecast of foreign exchange," said an executive, after seeing some of our local industries plunging in to panic out of some constipation even in our foreign exchange policies.

Nevertheless, Davao is still doing its share of profit in its bid to strengthen its economy despite the tacit friction of local and foreign investors. Vice Mayor Duterte even admonished the local government to make sure the local industry gets paid for their services and foreign investors regularly pay their taxes whenever a partnership takes place. A response that could easily raise the bar of dealing fair given the increasing rate of investments in the city.

Integration may be a suitable business associate after all. There really is no stopping the globalization of our daily needs all the way through to that "farm-to-market" road of doing business in a diversified economy. Compromise, as long as it warrants a sustained interest from the customers and investors alike, but always leave room for some souvenirs while you're at it. Who knows, that could be another business venture worth cashing in.