Happy New Year Go Negosyantes! It is a brand new year filled with exciting opportunities for all of us to do better and grow further.

Like many people, new year symbolizes new beginning. It is a great time to reassess and evaluate personal commitments, business plans and strategies, and see how you can improve and change your game plan. This is a chance to strive harder, persevere, and fulfill your goals.

As I share with you more of our partners and entrepreneurs’ wishes and expectations for 2016, let us all be inspired and continuously work for a more innovative and inclusive model of entrepreneurship.

“This coming year is another pivotal point in our country’s history. My wish is that we elect leaders who are capable, who have integrity, and who have a concrete goal and plan to continue our country’s growth, but with the poor and marginalized as priority. Hand in hand with good, effective leadership, we need to develop a sophisticated vigilance as a community to ensure that goals, policies, and programs have the country’s best interest at heart. Lastly, even with this vigilance, I wish for us Filipinos to cultivate our collective hope in the future of the Philippines and in our fellow countrymen – that with the right support systems, each Filipino can create for himself a better life.” – Sen. Bam Aquino

“My expectations and wishes for the Philippines in 2016 is that the upcoming national elections in May will be clean, peaceful, and orderly. I also hope that we will elect a president who will continue the good programs of the present administration, lead transparent government, promote peace and order, solve illegal drugs problem, and reduce poverty.” – Sen. Cynthia Villar

“It is an exciting time for our country as our economy has become one of best performing in the Southeast Asian region. A bigger part of our population is now at working-age and low inflation has helped increase their purchasing power. Our hardworking OFWs abroad and BPO workers at home have also contributed substantially to our GDP growth. I share the view that the Philippines has now entered a golden era in terms of economic growth and that this will continue for the coming decades.” – Ricardo Po Sr., Century Pacific Group

“2016 will surely be another great year as our country further grows forward. I am very optimistic that we will all witness the Philippine consumer and tourism industry making a significant big leap forward in the next five years. Growth will start to be more felt outside the Tier1 cities as the over 100 secondary and tertiary cities in the Philippines continues to move up. Our country will soon reach the economic sweet spot as the young and dynamic ‘millennial’ Filipino population has started to go on stream.” – Injap Sia, DoubleDragon Properties / Injap Investments

“My wish for 2016 is peace for the whole world including the politicians of our country. We should accept defeat and support whoever wins, while winners should not be vindictive. Divisiveness is a curse that weaken our country and make our people suffer.” – Myrna Yao, RichPrime Global

“I wish 2016 will be a better year for all of us. Better government and more investments from abroad. Hopefully, politicians will commit to what they promised during their campaign. Also, may God bless our country with less calamities.” – Rosalind Wee, W Group Inc.

“2016 should be a good year for the Philippine economy, particularly those in the following sectors: retail, tourism, BPO, agriculture, and construction. It will be a very challenging year for the manufacturing sector due to increased competition from imported manufactured goods and slow down in exports.” – Dr. Abraham Pascual, Pascual Laboratories

“I am optimistic about 2016 given the improved economic conditions our country is experiencing. I also wish for peaceful and non-violent elections from which chosen leaders can build on the progress of the country. Our own company, Golden ABC, is also confident about our competitiveness, given our sustained growth in the domestic market and the encouraging reception of our brands in other ASEAN territories where we are present. Our wish is that we will be able to bring more of our brands and open more stores in other territories within the region and beyond.” – Bernie Liu, Golden ABC

Let us all look forward to this year’s progress and wish for the best! I’ll be sharing more of these wishes in my next columns.