NEDA Sec Balisacan Encourages Bigger Role for Private Sector in Job Creation and Infrastructure

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan is asking the private sector to play a larger role in creating jobs and developing infrastructures in the country to aid in high economic growth.

“We see the private sector playing a significant role in bringing in the necessary investments that will lead to high-quality job creation, increasing the share of wage and salaried workers from 48 percent in 2021 to a range of 53-55 percent by 2028,” Sec Balisacan says during an economic briefing with Management Association of the Philippines (MAP)

Under the Marcos administration targets have been set to lower the unemployment rate to 4-5% by the year 2028 with high-quality jobs. For the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.5 – 7.5% this year and a range of 6.5 – 8% annually from 2023 to 2028.

Sec Balisacan also underscored the private sector’s role in providing jobs for the labor market, saying “To ensure that students will be qualified for higher-quality jobs, there must be closer coordination with the private sector with respect to job facilitation and skills development programs,”

“Given our current fiscal constraints, we will use PPPs [public-private partnerships] to harness the private sector’s expertise, resources, and capacity to substantially upgrade the country’s infrastructure,”

“To ensure that the benefits of economic growth are inclusive, we will prioritize solicited projects that fit into approved master plans and will connect leading and lagging regions,” shares Sec Balisacan.

He also repeated the larger part of tycoons and private investors to reach record-high spending equal to 6.3% of the GDP in 2028.

Source: Inquirer