links: http://www.gov.ph/2013/06/28/speech-of-the-secretary-of-socioeconomic-planning-at-the-third-anniversary-celebration-of-the-philippine-council-for-industry-energy-and-emerging-technology-june-28-2013/
Speech of Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan:
At the Third Anniversary Celebration of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology
[Delivered on June 28, 2013 at the New World Hotel, Makati]
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
Congratulations to the
Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology
Research and Development (PCIEERD) on your third anniversary. We are
happy to see that your organization has taken this opportunity to deepen
the discussion on inclusive growth and competitiveness, particularly
through partnership with the industry sector and the science and
technology (S&T) community.
From the start, we have emphasized the
crucial role that industry, particularly manufacturing, plays in
development. This is why we are very encouraged to see the latest data
on the performance of the Philippine economy. Not only did we have a
very good growth rate of 7.8 percent for the first quarter of 2013,
after a better-than-expected full-year growth of 6.8 percent in 2012;
industry was also able to contribute 10.9 percent of the growth, with
local manufacturing growing at an impressive rate of 9.7 percent despite
the 8.4 percent drop in our goods exports. The main contributors to the
strong growth of manufacturing were manufactures of food, radio,
television and communication equipment and apparatus, chemical products,
basic metal, machinery and other equipment, and transport equipment.
The next highest contributor to growth is construction, whose 32.5
percent strong growth indicates a good positioning towards an
industry-led economy.
The industry sector has great potential
to boost inclusive growth. For instance, the results of the April 2013
Labor Force Survey showed that while total employment fell by about
624,000 workers, employment in the industry sector grew by 3.8 percent
or 224,000 workers from April 2012 to April 2013. The quality of
employment in the industry sector also improved, with the number of
persons working 40 hours and over per week increasing to 79.4 percent in
April 2013, from 64.0 percent in April 2012. This trend is also
reflected in the increasing percentage of wage and salary workers, which
rose to 57.5 percent in April 2013 from 55.8 percent in April 2012.
Despite these positive developments,
however, we are aware that there is still much that needs to be done for
growth to be sustainable and inclusive. For instance, compared to other
Asian countries, the Philippines still has the lowest total investment
share to GDP from 2010-2012 relative to India, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand and Vietnam. Poverty incidence remains high, and so does income
inequality. Moreover, about than 60 percent of the entire country’s
economic growth is concentrated in Metro Manila, CALABARZON, and Central
Luzon.
Most of us are aware that rapid economic
growth is necessary to reduce poverty and promote inclusion. Evidence
shows that the substantial poverty reduction that was achieved in
developing countries in the past two decades was due to rapid economic
growth and structural transformation in these countries, particularly in
Asia. Globally, this growth contributed nearly two-thirds of the
observed poverty reduction in the developing world. Roughly, based on
World Bank data, a 1% increase in GDP per capita reduces poverty by
1.7%.
However, the case of the Philippines is
quite different. While economic growth in most East Asian countries has
been remarkably rapid during the past three decades, the same cannot be
said for the Philippines. The country’s economic growth during this
period has barely exceeded the population growth rate, which has
continued to expand relatively rapidly at about 2.0% a year. Thus,
serious students of Philippine development contend that shifting the
economy to a higher growth path—and keeping it there for the long
term—should be first and foremost on the development agenda.
But we are also realizing that there is a
two-way relationship between growth and inclusiveness. Without greater
inclusion, rapid and sustained growth will not be possible. Inequality
in incomes and opportunities can weaken the power of economic growth as a
key strategic vehicle for eliminating acute poverty. Rising inequality
can also undermine political and social stability, which is a necessary
condition for sustainable development and prosperity.
Thus, there is now a great sense of
urgency to reduce poverty and inequality. We cannot afford to simply
wait for the benefits of growth to “trickle down”. What we need is
inclusive growth – a growth process that deliberately enables more to
participate, and where the benefits of growth are shared by all.
Inclusive growth does not come by
chance. It requires deliberate policies that expand opportunities for
remunerative employment and human development. It also demands
development in the periphery through integration of the lagging areas or
regions with the fast-growing, leading areas or regions of the country.
Large-scale targeted programs also need to be in place to directly
assist those who are unable to participate in the growth process.
The measures and strategies that are
needed to promote inclusion are also the ones needed to increase the
country’s long-term competitiveness. The World Economic Forum defines
competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that
determine the level of productivity of a country, which in turn,
influence its income levels, returns to investment, and growth
potential. In other words, according to the WEF, a more competitive
economy is one that is likely to sustain growth.
What is government doing to promote inclusion, competitiveness, and economic growth?
To promote rapid, sustained growth, we
are anchoring public investment to areas and programs that will improve
the investment climate for private investors. Our strategic framework
envisions the public sector as the provider of enabling conditions for
the private sector to invest in productive sectors, thereby creating
decent and remunerative employment opportunities for our rapidly growing
labor force. Macroeconomic stability will still be the major strategy
to fuel positive expectations. Government will continue to exercise
fiscal prudence. We will strive to maintain, if not improve our credit
ratings, so that businesses and employers can enjoy a lower cost of
capital.
To sustain the growth, we need to ensure
that economic growth benefits everyone, regardless of location or
social status. To do this, we need to shift the structure of the economy
from being largely consumption-driven to one that is increasingly led
by investments. In particular, we need to improve the efficiency of
public investment to serve as a catalyst for greater private sector
participation; connect the regions to facilitate access to markets and
basic services; and address critical constraints to investments,
particularly high power cost, poor infrastructure, policy
inconsistencies, and administrative inefficiencies.
We are creating new drivers of growth
that will generate high quality jobs and strengthen regional competitive
advantage. The PDP: 2011-2016 and the various regional development
plans have identified priority industries which will be located across
the country. These have been prioritized because they present the
“highest growth potentials and generate the most jobs.”
For the remaining Plan period, we will
put more emphasis on employment generating sectors such as
manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, IT-BPO, agri-business, and housing.
These are industries with high growth potential and which are dispersed
across the country. Infrastructure projects have been programmed to
support growth in these industries that are in the peripheral regions.
We think that this will greatly increase our chances of achieving
inclusive growth.
To boost the competitiveness of our
productive sectors, we are investing heavily in infrastructure, human
capital (particularly education and health), and governance. Admittedly
in infrastructure development, especially those involving public-private
partnerships, the pace of implementation has been slower than desired.
We expect to speed up implementation of the key infrastructure programs
in the remaining years of this administration.
To further increase the capacity of
industries to grow and to generate employment, we are pushing for
measures to support new investors and to improve access to financing,
especially for small and medium enterprises. We are also reviewing the
foreign investment negative list and rationalizing fiscal incentives,
giving preference to generators of high-quality employment and
investment outside of NCR and Metro Cebu.
To propel our economy towards a higher,
sustainable and inclusive growth path, we need growth that is driven not
by perspiration, that is, increases in inputs such as areas of land or
higher labor use per unit of land, but by technology, improvements in
policy, and institutional reforms. As economic history tells us, it is
technological change that drives long-term economic development. But
technological change is not a manna from heaven. Countries must invest
in R&D and good governance to achieve rapid growth of incomes and
employment, and thus provide enduring sources of improvement in living
standards for their populations.
For Philippine S&T, we need to
channel our efforts towards increasing the productivity of agriculture
and industries, and improve the links between agriculture and industry
so that high quality jobs can be created, especially for the unskilled.
S&T innovations that directly improve the quality of life,
especially those related to health, safety, and environmental quality,
are also crucially needed. Other sectors in the economy also have
critical issues that could be addressed by advances in S&T.
Enhancing the country’s S&T capacity
depends on good policies and practices that foster the appropriate
environment and promote the interconnectedness of the areas upon which
S&T stands. Policies that promote greater human resource
development, facilitate demand for knowledge from the private sector,
enhance public support for and management of knowledge institutions, and
facilitate access to information and communication technologies (ICT)
infrastructure must be coordinated and harmonized in order to create the
conditions in which S&T capacity deepens and consolidates. A major
part of the R&D work will still be initiated by government. But we
hope that the private sector would increase their R&D efforts as
well.
Investments in human capital will also
address the problem of low employability among new job entrants. We have
started the phased implementation of the K to 12 Basic Education
Program, which aims to improve the quality of basic education and to
better prepare our students for the world of work. We are also
increasing investments in technical education while encouraging higher
education institutions to partner with business and employers to ensure
the relevance of their program offerings.
Successful implementation of these
strategies demands a greater sense of urgency among us in government, as
well as better coordination between and among the various agencies
charged with implementing programs and projects. Under the leadership of
our President, we are coordinating our programs and projects to
maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
As we in government work to improve the
business environment and invest in S&T and human capital
development, we hope that our partners in the S&T community and in
the industry sector will also take the necessary steps to increase their
efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. As mentioned earlier, one
way to do this is to increase research, development and innovation
efforts. To lessen our export dependency on mainly electronics and
semiconductors, we hope that our private sector partners will also
diversify and expand production of high value-added products, and
increase investments on backward and forward linkages to boost the
multiplier effects of our industries.
Economic growth, inclusion, and
competitiveness are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, these
factors enhance and reinforce each other. In the same way, our work in
government can only be strengthened and enhanced with the continuing
support of our partners in industry and in the science and technology
community. Together, let us promote a culture of multi-disciplinary
collaboration, knowledge sharing, open dialogue and cross-fertilization
of ideas, as we work to harness the benefits of science and technology
to improve the lives of our people.
Thank you and good morning.
GPH Website
http://www.gov.ph/
links:
links:
http://www.gov.ph/2013/06/28/speech-of-the-secretary-of-socioeconomic-planning-at-the-third-anniversary-celebration-of-the-philippine-council-for-industry-energy-and-emerging-technology-june-28-2013/
OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTIONS WEBSITES
Human Rights Advocacy Promotions | Human RightsHome - Human rights Promotions Website
PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
0 comments:
Post a Comment