NEDA aims to halve poverty by 2016

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the government is eyeing to cut the poverty incidence by half before President Benigno Aquino 3rd ends his term. “The official target that we have is the Millennium Development Goals. That’s essentially what we’re following. The government is committed to that, so in a way, that’s how NEDA looks at it,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director General Cayetano Paderanga told reporters.

The country’s commitment to attaining the MDGs stipulated the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger from 24.3 percent in 1991 to 14.6 percent in 2006 and to 12.5 percent in 2015.

The MDGs are based on the United Nations Millennium Declaration endorsed by all 189 United Nations member-states in 2000.

To meet the government target to cut poverty by half, Paderanga said a 7 percent to 8 percent growth in the next six years is ideal.

“The reason why we would like to target a 7 percent to 8 percent GDP is that what we think is necessary to really make a dent on poverty and move the country forward,” Paderanga said.

GDP refers to gross domestic product, which is the total value of final goods and services produced in the country.

For this year, the government expects GDP to grow between 5 percent and 6 percent.

In the third quarter, the economy expanded by 6.5 percent from 0.2 percent in the same period last year.

In the first nine months, the economy expanded by 7.5 percent from 0.7 percent last year.

The country’s recent growth performance compares well with Asian neighbors.

The Philippines is ahead of Indonesia (5.8 percent), Malaysia (5.3 percent), and South Korea (0.7 percent).
Nonetheless, the Philippines trail the economies of China (10.6 percent), Singapore (10.6 percent), Vietnam (7.2 percent), Thailand (6.7 percent) and Hong Kong (6.8 percent). –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR, Manila Times