The Philippines Rising

choi

Floyd Whaley, A Youthful Populace Helps Make the Philippines an Economic Bright Spot in Asia; Once helped by the IMF, now a contributor to it. New York Times, Aug 28, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/2 ... st-bright-spot.html

Three consecutive paragraphs:

"A high population growth rate, long considered a hindrance to prosperity, is now often seen as a driving force for economic growth. About 61 percent of the population in the Philippines is of working age, between 15 and 64. That figure is expected to continue increasing, which is not the case for many of its Asian neighbors, whose populations are aging. * * * [Frederic Neumann, a senior economist at HSBC in Hong Kong said,] 'The Philippines stands out as the youngest population [in Asia]'

"The Philippines, where English is widely spoken, surpassed India last year as the world’s leading provider of voice-based outsourcing services like customer service call centers. According to the country’s Board of Investments, offshore call centers employed 683,000 Filipinos in 2011 and generated about $11 billion in revenue, a 24 percent increase from the previous year.

"The Philippines' growing prosperity has also been driven by the 9.5 million Filipinos — almost 10 percent of the population — who work outside the country and who sent home about $20 billion in 2011. That is up from $7.5 billion in 2003.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) The first two paragraphs talks about a song:
Bon Jovi, Livin' On A Prayer (1986).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livin%27_on_a_Prayer

* lyrics
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Bon_Joviivin'_On_A_Prayer