The Missing Economy of the Philippines

The Philippines is missing the technology sector which is vital to its economic growth. The nation is plagued by international platforms that local firms can't compete against. Is this a growth potential?

Narrated by Chris (Chowson)
Video Edited by mranimator147

Timestamp(s):
0:00 The Startup Ecosystem
0:56 The Technology Issue
2:09 The Benefits
3:54 The Monopoly Issue
4:44 Homegrown Startups
6:13 The Innovation Future
7:08 Blockchain & Crypto

Brought to you by the Behind Asian Team.

[BehindAsia]

The world's innovation is booming, every nation is rapidly increasing its fair share of technology startups. The Philippines, however, is lacking. Do you think this can all change? Let us know down below!

[emmytalavera]

When a product is bad we call them local but when the product is good we call them imported we need to remove that kind of mentality

[Stephanie-isbu]

Support local products as much as you can.

[krizzyDeleon]

Filipinos were not geared to be enterpreneurs. We are trained in school to be employees, not employers. There's also a shortage of economists in the gov't who will think up advance economic ideas and putting them into use for the country's growth, not just short term but a long term plan.

[emmanuelgabion]

I've been a software developer here for ten years. I've worked for startups as well as BPOs.
We will never achieve the greatest in this industry because of brain drain. Because after gaining enough experience working for a local firm, we leave for a high-paying foreign tech firm. What is happening is that local tech companies are mere "incubators" for inexperienced developers who write bad code to the detriment of the company. It's similar to making their first company a guinea pig. As a result, most local tech firms are frequently left with toxic, underperforming employees who, for obvious reasons, are unable to leave. It's not surprising that a local tech frequently hires recent graduates and inexperienced employees who are willing to accept low pay.

[paulbandong]

One of the reasons for this is that the inventors in the Philippines weren't compensated well hence the reason why a lot of our brilliant tech savy people are working abroad.
But just like you said, the government is doing something and that the Philippines is still developing and with more than 100m+ population, it is not far fetched to think that someone will rise.

[jackroth]

I have lived in the Philippines for the past ten years. I am a businessman in my home country and I brought that mindset here with me to the Philippines. I tend to go "against the grain" in my business practices. This means to me that if there are certain weaknesses in the Filipino system that make it difficult for us to compete internationally then there might be a way to exploit said weaknesses to my advantage. So I started a tiny manufacturing company here that has grown to be the biggest private employer in my small city. We manufacture hand tools for sale internationally. I buy everything I can locally and sell internationally, where the money is. I kind of suspect that others will eventually see these discrepancies that make it economically advantageous to manufacture here and will do the same. In my own limited field our Filipino made products have come to be known as the highest quality that the world has to offer rather than the lowest.

[simonheikkila]

I heard from a Filipino going to a tech school where the teachers were actively discouraging students.

"You are not smart enough"
"You will not succeed"
"It is too difficult"

The climate is very anti-programmer-friendly.

[apinezstats]

Fortunately, with the help of the newly signed economic reforms(CREATE, RTL, PSA and FIA), the PH has finally caught the interest of many foreign investors.

[justice]

The big problem is the smart and talented ones leaves to work abroad because they can earn better, be stable, and provide their needs unlike while you're living in the Philippines even if your a nurse you still get paid less. Not only that corruption is also one of the reasons why some parts of the Philippines sector is failing.

[Viiiii]

The true reason is corruption. Tech startups here have a hard time just even filing for a business permit. A lot of government agencies don't move(make decisions or approve requests) till you give them a little grease money. Basically nothing moves till someone gets paid off. This is the real reason why there is hardly any growth in the country.

[cjay]

Corruption, mismanagement, and 60/40 rule. These are some of the reasons why that sector is missing out.

[aewty]

As I observed, economy wise there are quite a few local investments already but not as promising if compared to neighboring countries. The current inflation in the Philippines is very high. Many people have overlooked how much the country suffers from constant price hikes. Other Asean may benefit from this as they can get more international investors to themselves. Vietnam is an example. The foreign debts and even local debts are also growing rapidly. Ph should exhaust all the resources possible to grow and attract more investors to pay all the debts.

[xuelishimazaki]

I am an IT Grad in PH and I can tell you something. PH miss understood the difference of IT programmers and Technitians and only so few works for IT Programmers are in PH

[isaiasprestes]

Besides that, the PH lack high skilled people. Good ones just leave the country. Extremely hard get a Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Data Engineer, Cloud Engineer at same level of India, for instance. What you get easy are impostors, engineers by CV, not by competence.

[urbanjungle]

Whilst it’s encouraging that recent changes allowing 100% foreign ownership of businesses will spark off investment, it still is not enough to help the start up scene. It’s still massively bureaucratic and difficult to start a business in the Philippines when compared to the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong etc. Also the corporation taxes are ridiculously high in PH discouraging businesses to be set up. Personal taxation is also stupidly high when compared to other regional neighbours like Singapore and Hong Kong.
Also, the quality of university degree study for Technology related courses such as computer science is frankly garbage. The first year students barely even code! Hours spent attending religious lessons and church masses is not what employers want or need from graduates. The whole system is in massive need of modernisation and politicians and the church need to be kept as far away from business as possible.

[Aqualastic]

Sorry to be negative guys, but we Filipinos lack the basic character required of startups that can pass the stringent criteria of venture capitalists. In my opinion, among south east Asians, Filipinos are far behind in terms of demonstrating tenacity, courage and the determination to succeed no matter what. We are prone to look for an easy way out of tight circumstances, quick to find excuses or blame someone else. One only has to read this comment section to find there's lot of blaming and excuses. There are no shortages of ideas from Filipinos, but putting those ideas to work need some strong character that venture capitalists look for on the founder before putting a cent of his money into the startup project.

[alanthonyapostol]

The seeds are there and the ecosystem is growing.
It's like a pent-up frustration that just needs a catalyst and it'll explode.

We just need one, not the old rich-backed startup, but a true startup.
From the ground up, by a dreamer, by a visionary.

Using, devouring all obstacles in their environment as fuel for the conflagration in their hearts and not excuses as to why it's hard.

It's here, it's inevitable and it's just a matter of time.

[thepreparedpinoychannel]

Most Filipinos are not mature enough to accept homegrown startup companies. Add to that the bureaucracies and red tape in setting up one in the country...

[Chinoiserie]

One thing I noticed is that you mentioned PayMaya and Mynt are in partnership with bigger corporations like Ayala and PLDT. Isn't that how you grow start ups in the first place? As I understand if you want to reach a bigger audience in your services, you have to invite bigger companies to help you put out your plan. Also people keep mentioning all the time "government this", "government should do that" in every comment section about businesses. My answer to that is the fact that the government themselves lack the business capability. No matter how much money the government gives you, if you cannot deliver performance and revenue wise, it's a complete waste of funds and energy. That's why we have bigger players for that. That's why we have so called investors. DOST have that idea in supporting local technology start-ups but the process is still the same. They invite investors who are interested in the business. Either the reason is what I mentioned above or it's Filipinos are just so bad at entrepreneurship. I could be wrong.