The return of investors’ confidence

CANDID SHOTS – Crime has become the Achilles’ heel of whoever is in power. That’s the irony of it all. Many of our leaders fail in one critical area: peace and order. Today, as in previous dispensations, the crime situation is for real; and government must address it firmly.
What government should do is to mount a special effort utilizing a more collaborative arrangement among the various law enforcement agencies, with the support of the private sector. However, the biggest problem – and this has existed for many, many years—is the matter of cooperation and coordination.
Unfortunately, different law enforcement agencies instead adopt “each to their own” policy aimed primarily to boost their respective turfs and promote their own interest. Shades of hypocrisy!
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ESSENTIAL THINGS FOR BUSINESS – There are enough reasons to believe that Davao City will most likely remain a top performer in investment, finance and trade in the southern Philippines. I have long been an optimist about the city’s future – socio-politically and economically. The desire of the city leadership, the business and private sectors to constantly improve themselves shows no sign of diminishing.
Government officials and business leaders in the city had been pretty good at doing the things that are essential for business: stable macroeconomic policies, tax incentives, cheap labor, efficient public utilities, infrastructure, increasing investment in education, training and retraining.
Local and foreign investors continue to be highly confident about locating and investing in the city. What we have right now is government of big business and the euphoric business temperament during the past several months is directly related to the construction boom. Looking prudently at statistics, you will see that construction of infrastructures and basic industries is rising at accelerating pace.
That’s precisely the reason an increasingly vocal group of thoughtful observers and business analysts say that they’ve never seen this much construction development in such a short period of time. The long-term economic outlook is getting brighter as the city government in partnership with the business and private sectors has been able to stimulate investors with government-assisted initiatives.
The fast-pace construction of commercial edifices, hotels, malls, sports and recreational facilities, high-rise condominiums and office units, and tourism-related projects increased tremendously during the second quarter of 2011 following a temporary slowdown the previous year. However, boosted by investors’ confidence, construction of infrastructure and basic industries are expected to flourish even more in 2012 and in the succeeding years.
Within this business climate, construction and other related endeavor will improve the city’s commerce and trade activities, which in turn would encourage other prospective entrepreneurs to join the playing field. Eventually, the city government and the business community pretty much got what they wanted. Ironically, thanks were probably due to the return of investors’ confidence and it is an important step along the road to Davao City’s economic progress.
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PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT AND REAL ESTATE ACTION – Meanwhile, some well-entrenched Manila-based investors probably thinking that competition is already too tight in the Greater Manila area are pumping their money into infrastructure and consumer-based stocks, and also want a piece of Davao City’s property development and real estate action.
Leading business entities have been moving strongly and investing heavily in Durianburg, buying hefty chunks of properties, and many of them already own prime lots in different locations and other valuable holding in the city’s business and commercial districts, which will ultimately be the site of their proposed structures.
In addition, leading property developers are reportedly interested in expanding their business and want to target niche sectors, especially the top-class and rich Chinese community. A business insider says there have already been informal discussions the past months for a big property firm to purchase a vast track of land somewhere in the city and transform it into a residential and commercial complex.
On another front, other interested investors are eyeing low-cost housing and tourism-related projects, too. Their focus now is to continue extensive acquisition and look into other areas of expansion. But the big thing here is the construction of infrastructures therefore new ventures will still all be in the core areas of real estate and property development.
Big investors nowadays are interested in fast-growing sectors. Property development and real estate are two sectors that financial experts understand. Right now, the trend is increasing the exposure of Davao City to most fund managers based in Manila and neighboring Asian regions that are looking to diversify into the city’s unsaturated and uncongested market.
Expectedly, we will see more investors, local and foreign alike coming to the city. How they invest, however, is another story.