Access to health, education key to erasing poverty in Southeast Asia, says NEDA’s Balisacan

Providing the poor with equal access to economic opportunities and basic services, like health in education, is the key to reducing inequality and poverty in the Philippines and other East Asian countries, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Wednesday.

The government has raised its spending for health and education including the conditional cash transfer program, popularly called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P’s), NEDA Director-General and Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in an emailed statement.

Balisacan spoke during a World Bank panel recently held in Washington DC, citing government interventions to present more opportunities for the economy in preparation for next year’s ASEAN market integration.

The NEDA chief also said infrastructure investment is set to increase to 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2016 from 2 percent of GDP in 2012 to address “one of the country’s biggest constraints to development and opening up for a bigger market,” according to the statement.

“A much easier and faster way of addressing inequality is mobility and enhanced capacity of people to choose any sector or location of employment. This is why education is such a powerful equalizer. It explains why Filipinos are everywhere. When they can’t find opportunities near them, they move elsewhere if they have human capital,” Balisacan said.

The World Bank summit, attended by economists and analysts from across the globe, discussed how developing countries in developing East Asia and the Pacific can improve their economies.

The Philippine education sector will be receiving the biggest allocation of P364.9 billion under the proposed 2015 national budget, compared with P309.43 billion this year. – Raffy Cabristante/VS, GMA News