Source: ABS-CBN News, 17 May 2012

 

MANILA, Philippines – Newly appointed Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan vows to fast-track Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects.

This as the continuity of the PPP came into question following the resignation of his predecessor Cayetano Paderanga last week. These infrastructure projects are expected to boost the country’s economic growth this year, after a sluggish performance last year.

Balisacan said President Aquino gave him a marching order: “to address the critical constraints that make growth slow, uneven and exclusive to certain sectors of society.”

“Certainly, the Philippine economy is growing, but we need to make it grow faster and to sustain high growth for the long term. There is also no question that we need the growth to be more inclusive, across and within sectors and areas of the country,” he said.

One of his tasks at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Balisacan said, is to address the bottlenecks in building high quality infrastructure.

“Infrastructure support is clearly linked with poverty reduction. The PPP program is just one of the many tools to achieve this goal. We will continue the initial strides of the PPP Center, and we hope to further make PPP projects attractive to investors even in rural areas,” he said.

As dean of the University of the Philippines School of Economics, Balisacan said he has been disturbed by the country’s weak performance in addressing poverty.

“One fundamental reason for this is the rather slow pace of economic growth relative to our population growth. Associated with this is the slow growth of high-quality employment opportunities for our rapidly growing labor force. The other fundamental reason is our weak capacity to transform whatever growth we achieve to poverty reduction,” he said.

“I share the view with our President that we need to permanently break away from this pattern of growth, making development more inclusive, ensuring that it benefits everyone, especially the poor and the highly vulnerable groups in our society.”

Asked about the country’s dispute with China over Scarborough Shoal, Balisacan said the government is looking for ways to diversify its exports and boost local consumption to make the country less vulnerable to any backlash. – with ANC