MANILA, Philippines — Inflation, Fourth Industrial Revolution, and foreign policy — these are the major challenges hounding the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., according to an economic analyst.
George Siy, director of the Integrated Development Studies Institute, said that the prime issue that the current administration should quash is inflation as people’s lives are at stake.
“The most important short-term item to address is always the one that affects people’s livelihoods the most: this inflation on food, basic transport, and electricity,” he said in a forum on Tuesday.
“We have seen what can — immediately and very quickly — descend into chaos if people have a problem with food,” he added, noting that the country almost encountered the situation during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Siy deemed the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a medium-term concern to address, saying its impact may be felt in a year or two.
“The reason I consider it or we, many people, will consider it as a major item because the cost of implementing it is not very high. The impact is very great… That is the industrial revolution number 4,” he said.
“That means that we have to address our education and the digitalization of our economy because that can immediately reduce traffic, increase enterprise without a lot of investments,” he pointed out.
The Fourth Industrialized Revolution is “characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres,” World Economic Forum founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said.
Further, foreign policy is the third woe that the Marcos administration should battle, said Siy.
“We want a certain proposal that we don’t need to keep addressing defensively and react and respond to how the powers tell us that they want us to be in this position or that,” he explained.
“We can actually take the initiative to help shape in [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and in the West and in the world how the policies are formulated. We can start helping shape the directions of these,” the economic analyst went on.
During the sixth anniversary of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling on the South China Sea, the Philippines said it is rejecting any attempts to weaken the decision that invalidated China’s nine-dash line claim over the maritime area.