ESTRELLA TORRES
WORLD-RENOWNED economist and senior United Nations adviser Jeffrey Sachs cautioned China against bullying the Philippines in a worsening standoff in the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. The warning came amid the Philippines actively taking part in a perceived ambitious plan of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to build a single market by 2015.
He said China’s rise as an economic giant is definite and will be accompanied by an increasing military infrastructure. This stature, Sachs added, will play a role in Asia’s economic dynamism and the region’s possible future as a growth pole.
But China’s bullying of the Philippines will defeat Beijing’s long-term aspirations of becoming a global economic leader, he said.
Sachs, a University of Columbia professor and senior adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, gave his insights on the need for sustainable development to be the new matrix of gauging growth at the recently concluded 45th Asia Development Bank (ADB) meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City from May 2 to 5.
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