NEDA: PH Development Plan targets in industry, services, and financial sectors likely to be achieved

From the National Ecnonomic Development Authority

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is optimistic about the achievement of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) targets for 2014 in the Industry and Services (I&S) sectors. Bright prospects are also seen for the achievement of end-of-plan targets in the financial sector.

This is based on the initial results of an ongoing assessment and validation conducted by the Planning Committee on Economic Development, which met last September 3 at the Development Academy of the Philippines, Pasig City.

“The objectives of this exercise are to take a look at where we are in relation to the targets of the updated PDP, to pin-point the gaps, and see what can be done going forward in order to meet the objectives of the plan,” said NEDA Deputy Director-General Emmanuel F. Esguerra, who chairs the Committee.

Esguerra noted that the government updated the PDP 2011-2016 and included annual targets to better keep track of progress and allow for timely intervention.

Among the indicators in the I&S sectors that were validated to have high probability of meeting their 2014 targets are the improvement of gross value-added in services, Philippine Innovation Index, Doing Business global ranking, and labor productivity.

The Committee was also optimistic about achieving the targets in intellectual property products expenditures, level of consumer awareness, and services exports.

These indicators are deemed significant in monitoring progress towards an improved business climate, higher productivity and innovative capacity, enhanced consumer welfare, and expanded market access in the industry and services sectors.

Similarly, the Committee had a positive outlook on the PDP objective to increase access to financing to sustain and broaden growth, as all of the critical indicators in the financial sector exhibit a high probability of achievement by 2016.

These include growth of the financial system’s total assets, improvement of the national saving rate, increase in the number of deposit accounts per 1,000 population, improvement in the delivery of microfinance services, and increase in the number of access points per 10,000 population.

“Rest assured that we are earnestly monitoring these PDP targets. This is being done by the different inter-agency committees and subcommittees that prepared the PDP Midterm Update. These will then be reported to the respective NEDA committees or Cabinet clusters. In particular for the Planning Committee on Economic Development (PC1), the desired outcome is rapid growth that is inclusive and sustained. The PC1 will then report to the Economic Development Cluster the accomplishments to date, the gaps and suggested measures to achieve the targets, as necessary,” said NEDA Assistant Director-General Rosemarie G. Edillon.

The recently-held workshop is only one of a series being held in preparation for the next Socioeconomic Report of the PDP 2011-2016. The other planning committees for Social Development, Governance, and other chapters covered in the Plan will also be conducting workshops and assessments of the same nature.

neda.gov.ph