'Philippines no longer the sick man of Asia'
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The Philippines, which has lately seen new record highs in stock market trading, is making good progress in creating a more favourable image in the international community, according to the Filipino chief executive officer of the Bank of Singapore.
“The image is improving a lot…It’s not the sick man of Asia anymore. There’s less corruption,” said Renato de Guzman, CEO of the global private bank, who was interviewed on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual meetings last week.
De Guzman said the Philip-pines has learned well the lessons of the Asian financial crisis (of 1997), following which local banking regulators had introduced an array of reforms that have kept the banking system “quite insulated” from the subsequent US financial crisis in 2008 and the lingering crisis in Europe.
“I think confidence is high,” said De Guzman, who served as one of the panelists at a business forum within the ADB meetings. The forum discussed the impact of the US financial crisis three years after. The banker is hoping the Philippines would merit a sovereign investment grade rating but does not think this would necessarily happen within the year.
