Apec: What’s in it for the PH?

The usual suspects will most likely raise a hue and cry over the Aquino administration's decision to spend P10 billion for the yearlong hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meetings in the country. We can almost hear them saying that the gargantual amount would have been better off spent for, say, more schoolbuildings in the rural areas, or perhaps flood control projects for the metropolis.

But as pointed out by Ambassador Marciano Paynor, Jr., director general of the Apec 2015 National Organizing Council (NOC), “That is an investment. It is something that stems out of our own membership in multilateral forums.”

Paynor said the P10 billion allocated for the Apec meetings may be big by Philippine standards, but it is only a small fraction compared with the expenses of other countries that hosted past meetings. China, he said, spent $95 million just for the landscaping of a venue of the Apec summit. All in all, apart from building a special conference center, a waterfront boutique hotel and VIP villas, China spent a whopping $6 billion on its preparations for Apec summit.

But if comparisons such as this are, as the saying goes, odious, since China is far richer than us, then the more cogent reason for spending good money on Apec is what economic benefits we can derive from it.

Here’s the math. Our trade with Apec economies constitutes 80.7 percent of all Philippine trade. Tourists from Apec countries represent 80.81 percent of total tourist arrivals in the country. And Apec economies accounted for about 50 percent of the total official development assistance to the Philippines.

In other words, the economic returns on the P10 billion Philippine investment in hosting the Apec summit will be so much more, in terms of trade, tourism and development assistance.

Image by apec2015.ph