The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is revisiting the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) Midterm Update to integrate strategies and responses that would help the country shift to a “new normal,” its chief said on Thursday. “A midterm update has already been started prior to [the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic] and was about to be completed, but to be more relevant we decided to postpone [its] release and actually revisit the whole PDP update in light of Covid,” Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said during the House Committee on Economic Affairs’ virtual briefing on the PDP 2017-2022 and AmBisyon Natin 2040. He said that, given the pandemic, it was important to review and revisit the update and integrate concrete strategies, interventions and policy responses that would facilitate transition into the new normal, foster adaptive recovery and build socioeconomic resiliency. Chua added that “the immediate objective of the new PDP will now focus on a healthy and more resilient Philippines.”
By Anna Leah E. Gonzales
