It’s not often that a national government appoints a full-time IRO to communicate with the global financial community and promote the country’s investment opportunities. But since 2001, the Philippines has been getting serious about cleaning up its corruption-tarnished image. Part of the change is a dedicated IR department, with former stockbroker Corazon Guidote at the helm.
Q: What is your job and what is the role of the Philippines’ investor relations office?
A: I am the government’s executive director for investor relations. I report to the government’s executive and have a lean and mean team of eight. The IR office was set up in July 2001 as one of the earlier initiatives of the Arroyo administration.
The international business community is our main audience and we have a mandate to promote transparency in economic communications. The reason we’re doing this is to widen access to financial markets. We operate like a publicly listed corporation, and we also support companies’ efforts in the Philippines in raising capital.
Q: What led you to this role?
A: I was a broker for 14 years and had a lot of interaction with investor relations people. My first IR job was for Metro Pacific. I stayed there for two years, then went back to broking and retrenched. I though I might as well go back to IR, but there wasn’t much work around because most companies already had investor relations. Then the government’s finance secretary called me to see if I wanted to set up an IR office for the Philippines. It was scary at first because I wasn’t sure how to start and I didn’t know how it would be received by the investment community.
Q: In the past, the Philippines has had a reputation for corruption. How do you deal with investor concerns?
A: Corruption is one of the reform areas this government is trying to address, and there are a lot of reform measures taking place. For us to sustain the growth of the last two years, we have needed to strengthen certain institutions so they are not vulnerable to corruption, a process that is now bearing fruit. In the first half of 2002 there was resistance, but because the political will is so strong, we have been able to implement reforms.
On an administrative level, we have been more taxpayer focused, and are able to look for areas where tax avoidance is rampant. Last year, we were able to catch a lot of VAT evaders. On a legislative level, there is an initiative to further restructure the Board of Investments in order to make it fiscally stronger. Very concerted efforts are being made and this administration is serious about fighting corruption, regardless of resistance.
Q: How do you get your message out?
A: We have mid-year and year-end briefings when the heads of the economic agencies give their reports. Every year we do domestic and international roadshows. I’m lucky because although I have a limited budget, technology makes it easy for me to communicate in a less costly manner.
Getting our message across to the domestic market is also important and what we do is interesting because we are setting reporting standards, which has never been done before in the Philippines. Domestic companies can now set their own reporting standards based on what we do. Last year we hit two cities outside Manila, this year we’ll hit four.
Q: What are your future goals for your investor relations department?
A: In the short term, we want to enhance our service even further, try to reach more people and bridge the gap between our domestic and international communications. In the medium term, the challenge lies in being able to communicate properly with all our stakeholders on an ongoing basis.
There is a presidential election in 2004, which could mean department heads change. We’ll see what happens then because personality sets policy. We’ve been very fortunate because our superiors have been supportive so far. We’ve also seen the benefits that wider access to markets brings like reduced cost of borrowing, so I hope support stays the same. IR has played a major role in calming the market – we’re only a small voice among a lot of noise, but we plan to continue that noise.
Q: How do you see the Philippines’ market developing over the next few years?
A: We’ve traditionally had a weak domestic market, but domestic investors are now starting to fuel growth and the Philippines’ economy is growing, which I hope continues.
In the past, our market has not grown as fast as some Asian economies because of certain issues that were not addressed in the previous administration. But now reforms are taking place and we’ll see sectors like agriculture come to the forefront.
