BY:DONALD SEVILLA
TRAVELOGUE 2: Dateline Da Nang
Hopping on a flight a little over an hour to Da Nang, a city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam made me cringe with envy at how this country has grown by leaps and bounds.
While our leaders have been fighting their politics, this country has climbed its way to the top of the economic ladder. Slowly but surely it’s government has done a great job providing opportunities for its people.
From agriculture, to tourism and manufacturing, one can see the results of their hard work. Many industrial conglomerates have risen to the challenge and invested in their country’s infrastructure giving it a competitive edge.
The massive tourism development at Ba Na Hills initiated by the Sun Group speaks volumes about the country’s focus towards making it a major tourist destination.
This gamble has paid off,judging by the hordes of foreigners from all over the world flocking to this land. Once colonized by the French and devastated by war, it has come a long way since.
Yet tourism is not it’s only strength. It has developed its agriculture efficiently to becone a top exporter of rice in the world. It’s manufacturing and industrial sectors are well developed too that many popular brands are made in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese automaker VINFAST is set to conquer the Philippines with the entry of its electric vehicles competing with other big EV carmakers from China. All in all the country’s economy looks healthy.
Food is cheap. Electricity and power are affordable to the working class. Vietnamese workers may make a little less than ours but their spending power is much better as cost of living is lower. The Philippines may look rosy in its data but the reality on the ground speaks differently.
Fuel at the gas pumps here are cheaper than ours as government has acted swiftly to mitigate the impact of the Persian Gulf’s chokehold in Hormuz.
We can go further to compare state of the art infrastructure such as cable cars which we don’t have and ongoing works to improve their rail transport with ambitious plans for high speed travel.
We couldn’t even get our act together on a simpler infra development such as the Cebu BRT Project because of our politics.
Sadly we now pale in comparison although our country the Philippines, has billionaires in dollars among the Forbes list of the wealthy in the region.
But this wealth has not trickled down to the majority of our people. The gap between the rich and poor has drastically widened.
Can we attribute it to poor governance and corruption? Cronyism and patronage?
Politics has killed our chances at a better life. What is happening at the Senate and the top echelons of our government are ominous signs.
Yet we could do better as we are good at projecting curated images of ourselves. But have we done our part?
A lot remains to be seen in the political drama engulfing our country. We have wasted so much over the years.
Is our time yet to come or have we missed the train?
Mabuhay Philippines! Mabuhay Bohol!To see is to believe.