Suggestion Best Posts in Thread: Foreigners and Expats, Economic progress think tank. Outside the box!

Not allowing foreign ownership of land, or making it difficult to purchase, and not allowing 51% ownership of businesses is a major factor holding back development of this country. If the Philippines turned into one of those developed countries you mentioned, then for the purposes of this thread, this exercise would be a “success”. Nobody is disguising anything. In any case, it is financially better for me if it stays the same but I would like to see the country improve, and it actually has, every year since I first first visited in 1988 and then retired here a few years ago. This is just a discussion about how to jump start it to make things better for everybody.


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Nothing can be done without major bloodshed at this point and I'm not encouraging that. Those in power and with the wealth know that sharing it and raising standards for the lower class leads to their eventual loss of power. The more wealth the bottom 50% have the less they will think about today and the more they will think about tomorrow which means a likely political uprising. So keep them poor but not hopeless of living and they will be controllable. Only way to really do anything is taking all that wealth and property and sharing to some extent except the wealthy have full government control with no real way to challenge them. Thus what I said only some sort of civil war with blood which I also don't want to see.

We foreigners really have no role. We are pretty powerless to do anything and can't even really be good examples because an example requires someone to look at them when its good but we're completely ignored unless its bad. There are of course some bad foreigners and they stand out but as foreigners we try and push and teach things like good customer service, safe driving, respect for those being respectful, and being generous as many of us are far more generous then the locals. But do you think anything we do good even in the slightest rubs off? Of course not.

 

debate over the topic, just my opinion. Philippines had the last years a stable GDP growth of about 6%, our western countries can just dream about such a number. it is still just a number that doesn't explain everything, but it means at least:
- there is money in the country, and quite a lot
- people + companies make money in this country, there are profits.
the simple old problem is: the money and the profits are in the hands of only a few and still so many people here have simply nothing. this problem must be solved. big money must be shared and invested in schools, hospitals, streets etc instead of bombs and weapons. fight tax evasion and corruption consequently. it needs a wise government and a good social contract and general agreement of the people of this country for a change. we foreigners play just a marginal role, we could just be good examples how to run good societies, which we are not.
unfortunately, the Corona crisis will bring the GDP down this year, and many people will face severe problems.

 

While true that most foreigners are basically poor in their home countries I'll disagree with you. The reasoning is every dollar/peso a foreigner contributes to the economy has far greater weight for the country then the same amount contributed by a local. The reason is foreigners like OFWs are bringing in wealth from outside the Philippines which enriches the countries wealth exponentially. While there is no direct measurement one could still say one of my peso's that came from my US pension is worth 100 local peso's to the economy. Its simply that the locally economy can keep circulating on what it already has but it won't really grow because while one person may get richer another gets poorer maintaining a status quo. Bringing in outside money breaks that status quo and allows everyone that money circulates through to grow wealthier to some extent (except the originating country of course)

As far as land ownership to foreigners that is a very tricky situation. We do NOT want to make it possible for the Philippines or even a significant part of the Philippines to become foreign owned as the locals could end up being a foreigner in their own country in a way. However their is an argument to allow foreigners to own land in their name as well for minor purposes but how to manage this?

Now how to accomplish foreigners owning land even smaller amounts like 500sqm for residential purposes only? Any ways it goes there should be a way for the land to become owned again by the local government at a point be it when the foreigner dies w/o a local family member to inherit or doesn't meet certain residential requirements there anymore such as being absent for 1 or 2 years.

Now my suggestions:

1. Allow foreigners to become citizens with all of the same rights as a natural born Filipino citizen (besides President). Set conditions of course but said conditions should be somewhat lengthy but not ridiculously expensive. This would give the eventual ability for a foreigner to own land and a business. Maybe condition can only be met if married a Filipina and lived here for 5 years or whatever. However though a reasonable option should be there. It allows foreigners to have more skin in the game as well as rights.

2. Filipino's HATE taking advice from foreigners and we can understand this at times. However the truth is many of us have seen far more of the world as well as options for things that many locals even local government will ever see. As such I'd allow and actually have the governor and mayors put together a special sort of townhall or some sort of debate and suggestion structure to allow and look for suggestions from foreign nationals on how to deal with some of the common issues our communities face. After are many of us are community members but give us a voice in a positive way and be willing to listen to suggestions some of us can offer numerous positive points of view on issues they haven't thought of. Allow us to participate in this way as well making proposals and suggestions with an actual debate field.

3. Open a community public forum to mix foreigners and locals together and get us more connected. Plenty of Filipino's with some bright ideas out there and some foreigners as well. A community forum backed by the local government helping to put us together could do quite a bit. It could lead to new businesses as long as the foreigner feels protected on their investment as some Filipino's have bright ideas but no capital for even small things requiring only 20k peso's and a foreigner may be able to help as well as fine tune. It could lead to some sort of mixed group that helps out the poor community even. Many of us have done bits to help out the poor here and there even if just very local and I'm betting more of us would do more if we felt we could trust something and we do NOT trust things run by the government or a religious group but should it be local friends with a solid idea? Maybe. Anyways idea is to stop looking at us as foreigners and just brothers from another country and let us contribute and work with things.

4. Decide who are the friends of Filipino's and the Philippines and who is the enemy. 10 years ago it felt like the country was solidly pro American and while a weak ally still a staunch US ally. Today it feels like the US and Americans are kind of trash here and its all about China and selling out to China. The Philippines needs to make up its mind to provide some solidity and trust.

 

This is 'Robin Hood' territory.

 

Allow foreigners to own up to say 5000 square meters residential and 5 hectares agricultural. People would be more willing to come here if they weren't afraid to have their property scammed out from underneath them.
Also allow them to own at least 51% of a business