Gov’t to hold more ‘Sulong Pilipinas’

by Chino Leyco | August 7, 2016

The Duterte administration will replicate the successful “Sulong Pilipinas” consultative conference held in Davao City last June to further broaden multisectoral support for its 10-point socio-economic agenda aimed at sustaining the economy’s high growth while delivering its tangible benefits.

Finance Spokesperson Paola Alvarez said in a business forum that the “Sulong: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran” workshop, which was attended by over 300 business leaders, will also be conducted with various sectors by the different Cabinet secretaries.

The intention, Alvarez said, is to generate inputs and establish cohesive partnerships with concerned stakeholders in fleshing out President Duterte’s agenda of inclusive growth.

“We will be continuing the Sulong Pilipinas. So for different sectors, we will have different consultations involving the different Cabinet secretaries,” Alvarez said in an open forum at the Financial Times-First Metro Philippines Investment Summit.

First Metro summit participants lauded the new administration’s 10-point socio-economic agenda and the Sulong Pilipinas workshop spearheaded by then incoming Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III in Davao City a week before President Duterte was sworn into office.

The then-incoming Cabinet members presented Duterte’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda and gathered inputs from the business sector on how the government could set new standards and implement reforms that would translate into tangible benefits.

“I really think that’s a good start,” Makati Business Club (MBC) Chairman Ramon del Rosario said of “Sulong Pilipinas” during the open forum at the Fairmont Hotel investment summit.

“It was a marvelous idea, and I hope that they will continue that because that is a source of a lot of ideas that can be incorporated into the government’s plan,” Del Rosario said.

“And I think what they did was precisely that, that when the 10-point agenda came out it reflected to a large extent some of the things that the private sector has been talking about for some time,” he added.

Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director-General Lilia De Lima said at the same investment summit that, “Looking at the 10-point agenda of the new government, President Duterte puts the ease of doing business at number three, which is really, really, very important especially for the investors. “

“Most of the 10-point agenda are already there, but I think he (President Duterte) wants to put more emphasis on some of these things, especially the ease of doing business,” she added.

In line with the Duterte administration’s 10-point socio-economic agenda, Dominguez earlier said that the Duterte presidency would continue with the sound macroeconomic policies that have allowed the economy to grow under the previous administration.

But Dominguez also said they would overhaul the policies and systems that have barred an overwhelming majority of Filipinos from partaking of such benefits.

Alvarez said at the forum that on generating investments, Dominguez has already taken concrete steps to ease doing business at the Department of Finance (DOF) with the appointment of Undersecretary Gil Beltran as the DOF’s anti-red tape czar.

“His [Beltran’s] job would be to simplify the processes, wherein the requirements in a certain department that would be needed should no longer be duplicated,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said the government is also pursuing its plan to shift to a federal system of government to realize its goal of dispersing growth in the countryside.

“So instead of developments being centered in Metro Manila, we want to declog Metro Manila and develop each of the regions,” Alvarez noted.

Source: www.mb.com.ph