VP BINAY OUTLINES POLICY REFORMS FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH July 29, 2013 at 3:05pm Vice President Jejomar C. Binay outlined Monday before business leaders a host of economic policies needed to sustain economic development and promote inclusive growth, as he described criticisms against the Aquino administration’s achievements as “unreasonable.” Speaking before a joint meeting of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Makati Business Club (MBC) and the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), the Vice President said these policies include expanding the tax base by improving compliance and collection and not through tax increases, and “continuing to reduce, lengthen and spread our maturing liabilities to avoid disruptive fiscal bumps.” He also proposed to raise infrastructure spending from the current two percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to a “truly progressive” five percent of GDP. The Vice President added that there was a need to “liberalize foreign investment restrictions to make the Philippines and Philippine enterprises more globally competitive, and provide the Filipino consumer cheaper and more affordable products.” Binay said policy and infrastructure misalignments that emerge as gains are cascaded down must also be fixed. These include an airport development program to match the open skies policy, promoting investments in the power sector, and inefficiencies in the agriculture supply chain. “In tourism for example, a true open skies policy with an aggressive airport development program has to be undertaken. A reform in the EPIRA law will unlock investments towards the power short areas in Mindanao and Visayas,” he said. “We must take a look at the inefficiencies of the agriculture supply chain that allow as many as eight layers of middlemen to deprive the Filipino farmer the full value of their produce,” he added. The Vice President said the execution of development strategies must be decentralized and should take into account the particularities of each economic group and locality. “That means that finally, we must decentralize execution,through the national government agencies, the local governments, and necessarily too, through the national as well as the local enterprises that these government entities must deal with,” he said. He also said it was unreasonable to criticize the administration’s record for the last three years. "China is in its fourth decade of economic expansion and inclusion and is still working to achieve the equitable distribution of economic gains. And so, it is unreasonable to take a harsh look at what we have accomplished over the past three years. We must look beyond the previous three years, even beyond the next three years,” he said. Binay drew on his long experience as Mayor of Makati to explain why reforms must be sustained and expanded, as he addressed concerns over the supposed failure of the administration to provide relief to poor Filipinos. Before economic growth filters down to the rest of the Filipino people, Binay said the revenue base must first be expanded and that government resources must fill the needs of the poor. “As I have learned from Makati, expansion must necessarily precede inclusion. As the revenues of Makati City grew, we carefully focused the deployment of these resources in areas that would directly and sustainably benefit the Makati residents that need it most,” he said. The Vice President identified three key programs that he said must be given focus to improve quality of life: infrastructure development,education, and social services. “Since 1986, Makati’s public investments have consistently focused on three domains. First, on raising the standards and quality of city’s infrastructure to ensure the sustainability and continued expansion of city’s economy; second, a comprehensive education agenda to ensure the access of the city’s youth to the economic opportunities that are rapidly evolving in the city; and third, the access of its citizens to programs that enhance the quality of life, services like health, senior citizen programs and environment,” he said.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 05:16:33 +0000
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