October 18 2022 NEDA Sec. Arsenio Balisacan during a press brieifing at the Malacañang. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan is optimistic that the Philippines will make significant leaps in infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing and the service sector despite his misgivings about restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.
Balisacan said there were growth opportunities for the Philippines to reach a higher gross domestic product (GDP) target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent for 2024 even with challenges due to global factors.
READ: 6.5-7.5% growth in 2024 to help PH attain upper middle income status
“It’s going to be a broad base. We should see already for example the impact of the improvements in access to inputs, infrastructure, in agriculture. We should see also a much more improved services sector given that we have fully transitioned already from the restrictions of associated with the COVID-19,” he said in a press briefing in Malacañang on Friday.
He went on: “We should also see a revival of our manufacturing, at least start of growth there. We know the challenges. The world economies still not as good as we wanted but we do think that there are growth opportunities.”
He stressed the importance of operationalizing recent reforms like the new Public-Private Partnership Code and the implementing rules and regulations of amendments to the Public Services Act.
“With that being implemented, that should spur investments in areas like the tollways, airports, even in the digital and telecom services … With respect to infrastructure, despite the challenges we’ll keep expanding our investments by ensuring that infrastructure development will get at least 5 to 6 percent of our GDP to sustain the momentum that we have already started,” Balisacan said.
He made the remarks after the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) set a target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent GDP growth rate this year.
The socioeconomic planning secretary said the Philippine economy “generally performed well in 2023.”
Balisacan said the goal of faster economic growth will “generate economic opportunities, increase employment, raise per capita incomes and elevate Philippine economy to upper-middle-income-country status by 2025.”
He also expressed optimism that the country’s economic growth this year “will be supported by low and manageable inflation, a labor force with access to more and better jobs, a stronger fiscal position in the form of a lower deficit and debt as a share of gross domestic product, and an increasingly dynamic, innovative and competitive economy.” INQ