MTDP to be updated

THE GOVERNMENT is coming up with an updated medium-term development plan (MTDP) that will be centered on “job creation” and will be presented by President Benigno S. C. Aquino III in July, a Cabinet official yesterday said.

“In this update [of the MTDP], we need to put job creation at the center of the plan,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said at the sidelines of a forum in Pasig City.

IDENTIFY THE GAPS

“We wanted to learn from the first three years, identify the gaps and what we could do to ensure that we can still meet the targets, objectives of development the President [Aquino] announced in his social contract with the Filipino people,” he said.

Mr. Balisacan, also the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) director-general, said “enhancement” of the proposal will focus on job creation because the government wants “to create jobs in areas where there are poor”.

Areas where “we could specifically have proactive interventions by way of job creation, infrastructure, sectoral development and so on” will be identified, he said.

Asked on the time line of the revision, the NEDA chief said: “We hope to have the first done before SoNA (State of the Nation Address).”

Work has started a couple of weeks ago and nationwide consultations are on-going, he said.

Mr. Aquino, according to Mr. Balisacan, has issued a memorandum ordering the update of the development plan in time for his SoNA this July. — Kathryn Mae P. Tubadeza, Businessworld