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Building For Everyone
Improved infrastructure does more than move people, goods, and services quickly; it can promote both a higher standard of living and large-scale social change. Far-flung communities can access better health services, education and utilities, and new ideas and improved methods gain better exposure.
Companies like MPIC work around the clock to build the roads, power plants, water plants, and telecommunications networks that enable Filipinos to work, and live, for the better. But these require an extensive ecosystem of public and private stakeholders, contractors, and suppliers. Construction firms such as DMCI and EEI Corp. provide the know-how and the sinews to raise bridges and extend roads, while manufacturers like Capitol Steel Corp. literally create the building blocks of everything we travel on, over or through. Their challenges range from frequent shifts in government policies to securing price-stable raw materials. However, the Duterte administration is determined to push critical infrastructure projects, and this keeps stakeholders optimistic.
With good infrastructure, the Philippines can expect to be both more productive and competitive, and attract additional foreign direct investments such as business process outsourcing companies. The BPO industry expanded rapidly over the past decade to include services like medical transcription, software development, financial services, and human resources functions. Its accelerated demand for office space and techno parks ironically places greater pressure on available infrastructure.
Yet building more is not the sole answer. Where we build must be considered as well, to ensure that all communities in the country can participate in the national, and even global, economy.
A PASSION TO DO BETTER
As government and corporations seek ways to move big public-private partnership projects ahead, companies like Meralco ensure the existence of proper infrastructure so we can better serve our customers. It's all part of our customer-focused mission to provide our corporate partners not only electricity, but also value-added energy solutions and services. Through our Electric Distribution Development Office we reach customers beyond our franchise areas, like public ecozones such as the Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ), which are operated by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. We supply regular, stable power for the many factories in these ecozones, but are also challenged to make the country more attractive to foreign investors.
One such investor is Hayakawa Electronics Philippines Corp., among the first CEZ locators. Its single plant with 24 employees within the zone grew to three factories and five companies that employ 2,500 Filipinos, a growth that Meralco is proud to have been part of. However, a company's success isn't just about increased output, but a reflection of the state of mind among people at the top. Take Alex Chan Lim, head of the remittance company MoneyGram Philippines, who finds ideas and inspiration outside the confines of the boardroom. I admire CEOs whose hobbies are removed from their line of work. It's not about seeking escape but about gaining insight, and discovering better ways of doing things. More importantly, pursuing a passion requires discipline, a virtue also vital to growing any business.