Marcos approves recovery roadmap

(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has issued an executive order (EO) approving the five-year Philippine Development Plan (PDP) which will serve as the country's roadmap for economic recovery.

Malacañang said on Monday EO 14 paves the way for the implementation of the second medium-term plan to “bring back the country to a high-growth trajectory and more importantly, enable economic and social transformation for a prosperous, inclusive and resilient society.”

The plan covers the period 2023 to 2028.

Approved last December by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board, the PDP incorporates the administration's 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda to “reinvigorate job creation and accelerate poverty reduction while addressing the issues brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

EO 14 directs all national government agencies, government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs), government financial institutions (GFIs), other national government offices and instrumentalities, government corporate entities (GCEs), state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local government units (LGUs) to adopt and disseminate the PDP.

They are also tasked to align their budgetary and department/corporate programs with the strategies and activities identified in the plan.

The formulation of the PDP will be completed by the first quarter of 2023 and updated annually or when deemed necessary by the NEDA.

“We approved the Philippine Development Plan for 2023 to 2028 and this sets out the framework of the development plan for the Philippines and we have included all of the priority areas,” Marcos said at the launching of the PDP Forum at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

“This will facilitate the coordination and the alignment of all departments and all agencies in government to a single plan so that we are all working in the same direction,” he added.

Marcos cited the importance of the government partnering with the private sector “in all our plans for the future.”

“It is a very simple axiomatic principle that we follow and that is very simply that we the government cannot do this alone. And we must strengthen our partnerships with our private sector partners both here and abroad,” he stated, reiterating that his administration “cannot do it alone.”

The President noted that the government and private sector working together is integral to “reinvigorate job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the economy back on the high-growth path and effect economic transformation.”

He described the plan as “truly bold.”

“I have the confidence in the minds of those who will become our partners in realizing this vision contained in this document and faith in the capacity of our people,” he said.