De Soto economic think tank to set up Asian operations base in Philippines

An international organization that assists developing nations in their transition to a modern market economy has announced its decision to set up its Asian base of operations in the Philippines.

The decision was announced by Institute for Liberal Democracy (ILD) President Hernando De Soto himself, along with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at a joint press briefing in Santiago, Chile.

De Soto said his organization is interested in tapping the services of at least five or six economic experts in the Philippines who have knowledge and background on Asian economies, to service the technical requirements of clients in the region, the Philippine presidential palace said Monday in a statement.

De Soto's services were sought by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to allow her administration to design a program that would meet her campaign promise to significantly reduce poverty and allow the poor to benefit from the country's economic growth.

His task would involve designing a program and undertaking an in-depth study on the business potentials for the poor in the Philippines. ILD has been working with governments to convince them to give the poor access to property rights which they could use as collaterals in securing loans.

"He knows that his asset reform program is at the top of my 10 point legacy agenda and he is considering setting up his Asian base of operations in the Philippines," Arroyo said, referring to De Soto.

The Peruvian economist is widely known for designing and implementing capital formation programs aimed at empowering the poor in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

"De Soto is the world's expert in empowering the poor to own property that can be used to create micro-business enterprises. More enterprises mean more jobs and wealth. He has been successfulin several countries in South America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, "Arroyo said.

Government officials were optimistic that Arroyo's plan to undertake an Asset Reform Program would boost efforts to raise government revenues, while allowing the poor to benefit from economic development.

Arroyo noted that the gross domestic product of Peru and Egypt improved by more than three percentage points after aggressively pursuing De Soto's anti-poverty model.

Source: Xinhua