10-POINT ECONOMIC PROGRAM. Incoming Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez explains the 10-point socio-economic program of the Duterte administration before hundreds of representatives of various businesses at the the SMX Convention Center on Monday, June 20. The conference aims to discuss the economic agenda and submit recommendations to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte. (Medel V. Hernani/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY – Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte is set to meet with the country’s business leaders on Tuesday, June 21 in the culmination of the conference discussing how to ensure inclusive growth with the new administration’s 10-point socio-economic agenda.
Duterte’s incoming cabinet-designates with the leaders of the business sectors from across the country in a two-day gathering which began on Monday, June 20 at the SMX Convention center in Lanang here.
The gathering dubbed “Sulong PIlipinas: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran,” (Philippines Move Forward)was attended by more than 300 members of the business community in the country to discuss the 10-point socio-economic. Business representatives will present their recommendation to Duterte on Tuesday afternoon.
Duterte’s economic team previously presented an 8-point economic agenda. The new economic agenda now includes the focus on Reproductive Health Law (RH Law), science, technology and the arts.
The 10-point economic agenda of the next administration includes:
1) Continue and maintain the macroeconomic policies, including fiscal, monetary, and trade policies;
2) Institute progressive tax reform and more effective tax collection, indexing taxes to inflation;
3) Increase competitiveness and the ease of doing business;
4) Accelerate annual infrastructure spending to account for 5 percent of GDP, with Public-Private Partnerships playing a key role;
5) Promote rural and value chain development toward increasing agricultural and rural enterprise productivity and rural tourism;
6) Ensure security of land tenure to encourage investments and address bottlenecks in land management and titling agencies;
7) Invest in human capital development, including health and education system, and match skills and training to meet the demand of businesses and the private sector;
8) Promote science, technology and the creative arts to enhance innovation and creative capacity towards self-sustaining, inclusive development;
9) Improve social protection programs, including the govenrment’s Conditional Cash Transfer program, to protect the poor against instability and economic shock; and
10) Strengthen implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law to enable all, and especially poor couples to make informed choices on financial and family planning.
The economic team of the incoming Duterte administration present during the first day of the gathering were: Emmanuel Piñol, incoming secretary of the Department of Agriculture; Ramon Lopez, incoming secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry; Art Tugade, incoming secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication; Mark Villar, incoming secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways; Benjamin Diokno, incoming secretary of the Department of Budget and Management; Ernesto Pernia, incoming secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority; Carlos Dominguez, incoming secretary of the Department of Finance; Wanda Teo, incoming secretary of the Department of Tourism; Ismael Mike Sueno, incoming secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government; and Atty. Caesar Dulay, incoming Bureau of Internal Revenue chief.
The other Cabinet members present were Atty. Vitaliano Aguirre, incoming secretary of the Department of Justice; Ernie Abella, incoming Presidential spokesperson; Atty. Salvador “Bingbong” Medialdea, incoming Executive Secretary and Presidential Legal Counsel Atty. Salvador Panelo.
For inclusive growth
Dominguez said the previous economic growth “did not sufficiently disperse economic opportunity nor substantially reduce poverty.”
“It kept the income levels tight for the middle class and pushed the rural poor to even greater misery,” said Dominguez.
Dominguez said with the 10-point program of the new administration will move away from chronic underspending and “will invest in building infrastructure necessary to make us a 21st century economy from modernizing our ports, to improving our logistical spine to ensuring reliable and affordable power for all the islands.”
He also said more investment in human capital will need extensive budgetary outlays for education and public health.
Meanwhile, one of the targets of the incoming administration is to review the current tax system to update the income tax. “We wish to see our workers having more disposable income to do as they wish,” Dominguez said.
He added that corporate tax rates will also be adjusted to be competitive with the other countries in the region.
Good forum
George Barcelon, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries opened the event which he described as the “first business consultation workshop on promoting inclusive growth.”
Barcelon said the event, initiated by Dominguez, “is a step to the right direction for all us to think out of the box, to get things done, to move forward for sustainable and truly inclusive growth.”
Vicente Lao, chairman of the Mindanao Business Council said the consultation is a “good forum to resolve issues”.
“Never in our political history has there been an administration that starts with a consultation because they believe that the policy directions that will be given by the governing leaders of the country should be validated by those they have governed,” Lao said during his opening statement.
“We believe it is a good forum, because it will be a forum for us in the future to resolve issues and this is what we really need in the development of the country, we also believe that these kinds of forum can be implemented even on the other issues that we have,” he said.(davaotoday.com)
