The Effects of Globalization on the Philippines and India Lloyd Wood In this paper the author will briefly look at the globalization of two nations, the Philippines and India. We will look at each country before globalization, the turning point where globalization began for each nation, and finally the effects of globalization on each country. This writer believes it can be successfully argued that the globalization of each country has improved the overall standard of living in each country. We will also look at the positive and the negative effects globalization has brought to each nation.Globalization In The Philippines The Philippines Before Globalization Throughout the last century the Philippines has been a nation with many separate ethnic groups within its boundaries.
Its seven ethnic groups ( more depending on the method one uses to differentiate the population) are scattered over 7,000 islands (Banlaoi 2005). The Philippines pre-1995 was a country whose economy was largely based on agricultural production and on a small part on mineral resources such as copper, gold, chromium, and iron. It has been estimated that 90 % of Philippines' minerals have been undeveloped .Filipino government was authoritarian and considered weak, corrupt, and run by ruling families, clans, landlords and business. While the country regularly held elections, they were considered a farce as the ruling powers could easily influence and buy the outcome of elections to keep the status quo intact.
It's no wonder then the government suffered low morale, corruption, and limited technological skills. All of these issues resulted in keeping the country from having a cohesive socioeconomic organization (Villanueva 21). Poverty has been a major problem for the Philippines.In country of 80 million people it is estimated that over 14 million live in poverty. Filipino religious background has been dominated by Christianity, first by Roman Catholicism brought by early Spanish rulers and later with Protestantism brought by the United States' rule in the 20th century.
Muslim has been a growing influence and population (Banlaoi 2005). How Globalization started in The Philippines The turning point for globalization for the Philippines came in 1995 when the country signed an agreement to join and work with the World Trade Organization.The World Trade Organization-WTO (this is greatly simplified) does three things for membership countries. First, binding agreements help govern international trading commerce.
Second, the WTO helps commerce between nations flow as freely as possible. Finally the WTO assists international commerce settle trade disputes within the its agreements. The joining of the World Trade Organization was a direct and intentional action by the Philippines which had an overall positive effect albeit with some negative reactions, as will be mentioned later by portions of the populace (WTO 2011).How Globalization Changed the Philippines Joining the World Trade Organization has liberalized the government of the Philippines. While it no longer has the totalitarian regime that reigned in the 70's which caused many to leave the country, they faced some major problems in globalization. Its corruption and long established ethnic and regional rulers railed against loss of power and revenue verses what would be good for the Philippine people.
Overall Global Globalization establishes a middle class or expands a middle class wherever it takes hold and the Philippines is no exception. The middle class has benefited from the developing of minerals which have made the Philippines a leader in the exports of electronics and semi-conductors. Jobs have also increased in the service sector. One journalist wrote that in one city he observed that in pre-globalization days the streets would be deserted at night because everything operated from 8 AM to 5 PM.
Now at 9 in the evening the city was busy as young workers were in the streets heading to their jobs to start their work shifts at call centers, answering calls 9 PM to 5 AM from international markets. Service sectors have helped the economy grow up to 5% yearly and expects the number of jobs to rise to between 800,000- 1,000,000 from a base of 250,000 (Llitoro 2007).. Some Filipinos Many felt the Philippines were negatively impacted by globalization. Indigenous people such as local armers with small plots of land could not meet the demands of globalized agriculture and lost or sold their family land to large farming corporations or mining companies looking for the mineral deposits underneath their land.
Farmers were forced to move to urban areas to look for work or live in poverty. Since globalization had taken place agricultural jobs dropped from a third to a fifth of the nation's GDP (Sibal 2010). These families have none of the education, technical, or computers skills needed to make a living in a global economy.One can easily imagine how the loss of family land, work, the movement of people who have lived in the same area for generations have caused some discontent. Some religious groups such as Muslims whose numbers and influence are growing on the Philippines are increasingly unhappy being under Filipino rule.
They are displeased with the moral liberalization that is inevitable when globalization takes place. Due to this the Muslins have wanted to succeed from the Philippines and form their own state and authoritarian rule (Banlaoi 2005) . Globalization in IndiaIndia Before Globalization Three influences shaped India's economic culture in the late 20th century (Kuma, 2009). The Hindu religion whose caste system discouraged entrepreneurship and encouraged people to accept their lot in life ( i. e.
where the caste system had placed them). Previous British rule also devastated India's economy by killing successful native economies such as the textile trade, by draining off India's raw materials for its own industries, and by distributing British products to India. A final influence was the socialist programs adopted by India.Under India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, a committed Socialist and admirer of Joseph Stalin, centralized every part of the economy so that nothing could happen without government approval. Nehru started "License Raj" which resulted in people waiting for "..
. 10 years to receive permission to buy a car, 8 years to receive permission to buy a motorcycle, or 11 years to get a license for a phone line for your apartment. India was a country where a license was required to purchase three bags of cement or two gallons of milk (Nobrega & Sinha, 2008). " How Globalization Started in IndiaThe gates were thrown wide open for India's globalization in 1991, when the pressures of the Soviet Union's collapse, a major trade partner and source of foreign aid for India, coupled with rising oil prices due to the Iraq war brought India's financial exchange within a month of defaulting on its international loans. A default which would have affected virtually every area of its economy. It was at this time India decided to drop its Socialist policies and pursed a free market economy.
These free market policies were a direct intentional action which brought the positive effect of making India a world economic power within 20 years.Some of the changes instituted were the selling of public sector businesses to the private ownership, devaluation of the Indian Rupee, dropping government licensing requirement for starting a business or for government approval for expanding a business, allowing total foreign investment in Indian businesses, reduction of trade tariffs from 300 to 30 %, and the reform of all financial sectors such as banking, investments, and insurance (Kuma, 2009). How Globalization Changed India. With open market policies in place, India has become a Mecca for IT and business outsourcing. What China has become to manufacturing, India has become to the new world of business process outsourcing (BPO) - which includes everything from payroll to billing to IT support. India is the world's leading exporter of IT services with its volume of offshore business doubling every three years (Schifferes, 2007).
" Every major international company in the IT industry now has a huge presence in India, and plans to expand its investments. This has caused the Indian economy to grow at a 9% rate yearly (Schifferes, 2007).While it is well known that India is a world leader in IT and BPO, most do not know that the country has become the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles and trucks , the largest exporter of milk and fruit, operates the world's third largest stock exchange, is the fourth largest economy in the world, and has the largest number of engineering graduates in the world. All of which will have fostered the growth of the middle class whose number is to grow to an estimated 91 million homes by 2012 (Nobrega & Sinha, 2008). Many Indians would not say that everything is now positive. Despite all the ositive things that have happened to India, there have been negatives in India's globalization.
India's prosperity has not reached beyond city limits. One would look at the major cities in India and see that they look just like another world class city but rural India has seen little benefit from globalization. Twenty five percent of Indians live below the poverty line, living on less than the equivalent of a dollar a day in US currency (Coleman, 2008). Another negative from India's globalization effects is reflected in the country's religious leaders affect on Hindu beliefs and culture.
Hindu leaders have expressed anger concerning the loss of Hindi culture and the introduction of sinful western influences, examples of which would be movies and pornography. India's religious leaders have expressed the "need for a Hindu religious state to reflect the authentic culture of the majority" (Coleman, 2008) In conclusion, globalization has brought great changes to both the Philippines and India. Each nation made a direct intentional choice to change their countries fortunes. For the Philippines it has meant the a great step forward in its economy and in world status.
For India, globalization has propelled it into a leader in a world economy. Each country made a decisive decision to change its economy. For the Philippines it joined the World Trade Organization and used its rules to propel its economy into a prosperous future. For India with a bankrupt economy a decision was made to institute free market policies. While each nation prospered it was not without problems. Poverty was still a problem for each country.
One could say that the new prosperity did not trickle down to the poor and indigenous peoples.Also, as with all changes, there are always people who were satisfied with the status quo and protest every change whether positive or negative. People from both nations decried the loss of native culture and the liberalization of each of its long established societal values. It will be interesting to watch how these issues play themselves out for the future of each nation. References Banlaoi, Rommel C. , (2004) Globalization and Nation-Building in the Philippines: State Predicaments in Managing Society in the Midst of Diversity.
Growth and Governance in Asia. retrieved from
