Strengthening the Weakening Peso The value of a currency is a specific country reflects its economic standing.

The value of a currency depends on economic factors such as trade, inflation, employment, interest rates, growth, imports and exports, and foreign investment inflows. It would be an amazing idea to strengthen the Philippine peso because this will be a sign that the country is developing or progressing. Through this we can also lower the prices of the commodities that we have. How will we strengthen our countrys peso? Aside from avoiding the Filipinos to hold or keep our coins on coin banks, we have lots of different ways that we can do to solve one of the countrys biggest problems which is to strengthen the weakening peso. But where should we start? I think that we should start from the things that we already have but we still do not see how to use this important things that can help us strengthen the Philippine Peso. It is a fact that the Philippines is one of the agricultural countries of the world but why do we still import agricultural products from the other countries? Some fertilizers and seeds are also imported from the other countries. Our countrys location is very suitable for farming because our countrys soil is rich and the season in the country is not that fast in shifting since we only have the dry and the wet season. I think that we should give focus on this aspect because through this we can produce agricultural product that would be enough for our consumption. The advantage of this is that the need to import agricultural products will be eliminated. We all know that if the country will continue to import products from the other countries our dollar reserve will be lessened. Another advantage of this is that if it is seen that the agricultural sector is producing more than what the Filipinos can consume then we can move to a higher step which is exporting this quality products to other countries that is in need of our products. People worldwide nowadays are becoming health conscious they prefer food products that are healthy therefore government should also support the production of organic products that will qualify for certification by recognized bodies as organic products to be able to compete as exports inline with the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asian Free Trade Area (AFTA). More exports mean more dollar inflows. This can be done by encouraging investments for the production of fertilizers, seeds, and farm equipments like tractors, planters, harvesters and processing facilities as these products are heavily imported. The experts should continue to update and educate farmers about what and when to plant different agricultural products. They should be informed also about what kind of fertilizers they can use for the different products they have. The Philippines is known to be the Pearl of the Orient. We are given this name because of the countrys rich natural resources and its unique appealing beauty. Almost every place in the country has its own tourist destination. We should also give importance to this precious gift that the Almighty has given us because we can use this strength that we have to increase the value of the Philippine Peso. We can use this in a way that we can attract foreign tourist to visit the Philippines. If the Philippines is visited by lots of tourist then this mean that the dollar reserve of the country will increase. It will increase because the tourist that will come to the country will have to spend money for food, logging, fare, souvenirs, and other expenses that they might have.

Take note that their money is in the currency of the country where they came from and because of this they have to purchase Philippine peso using their money and the Philippine Peso that they purchased will also be spent here in the Philippines. The Government and the Filipinos should monitor and make sure that these resources and tourist destinations will not be damaged because this can also attract foreign investors to invest in the country. We should help in our own ways on conserving our natural resources. Another way of strengthening the Philippine peso is that the Government should also check on their policies when it come to businesses because this will also be an indicator for a foreign investor to invest in the country. If a foreign investor thinks that the countrys political culture is not that good then he would not dare to invest in that specific country. Let us take for example that if a foreign investor knew that a specific country has officials that are corrupt and are not considerate of the effects of their decisions in the businesses established in that area, by knowing this the investor would not be convinced to invest in the country because he will be afraid that the offices of the politicians that are corrupt might collect charges that are not suppose to be collected and because of this they might feel that their money will just be wasted if they invest in the country. Filipino people are known to be hard working and love their family so much. Because of these characteristics they would do everything and sacrifice to give their families a more convenient life. Most of the Filipinos who does not have jobs tend to go abroad and work their. Because of this the dollar reserve of the country is also increasing caused by the overseas remittances of our OFWs. Although it sounds good we should also encourage our OFWs to earn and comeback to the Philippines and establish their own business. If they earn and establish their business here in our country then they would be safe from the possible fluctuations in foreign exchange. Through this they will also be able to decrease the number of unemployed Filipinos. This will also help the country increase its economic standing. We can also strengthen the Philippine peso by preferring our own products over the products of the other countries. What I mean is that if we would learn to minimize our habit of buying foreign products this will cause a big difference in the value of the Philippine peso. Whenever we buy products we should check whether there are products like this that is made in the Philippines and if the quality is just the same of what the foreign products offer we should buy our own product because through this the exports from the other countries will be lessened. We all know that the Philippines mountains are rich when it comes to mineral resources. The corporations and investors should be convinced that they should sell the gold reserves that they might get from our country inside the country. The government and the other investors should also slowly provide facilities for the processing of the resources that contains these minerals. If the government and the other investors will provide these facilities, then we would not be forced to bring these mineral resources to the other countries because we would be able to process these minerals inside the country.

As we can see, we have lots of ways on how to strengthen our weakening peso. It is up to us to use this ways because I believe that this ways will be useless if no one will use it. It would be great in the future to live in the Philippines having an exchange rate of P1.00 is equal to $1.00 or less. The above measure of strengthening the Philippine peso is much easier said than done. Strong political will is needed to continue with the good policy initiatives already done. Sooner or later, as government leadership come and go this can be achieved. The citizenry also plays a vital role to assist government in the achievement of noble objectives. In a community each and every person has their own roles and we should be competitive enough to fulfill these roles. SO ACT NOW!

STRENGTHENING THE WEAKENING PESO

CAYANOS, Shayne Mae S. Financial Management 1 (10:20- 11:45 TThS) August 10, 2013