NEDA sets blueprint for gov’t agencies’ medium-term plans

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has instructed all government entities, including line agencies, to craft their respective medium-term programs in line with President Arroyo’s 10-point National Development Agenda.

In a memorandum to Cabinet members and heads of Regional Development Councils (RDCs), Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA director general Romulo Neri said the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) and the accompanying Medium-Term Public Investment Program (MTPIP) of the concerned agencies should follow a uniform planning process, content outline and organizational framework.

The medium-term plans will be anchored on five themes for macroeconomic stability: fiscal and financial strength; job creation through global competitiveness; social development and direct anti-poverty measures; decentralized development; and good governance and national harmony.

Each MTPDP chapter will contain a performance overview and strategic framework while the strategy-planning matrix will include the desired outcomes, priority strategies and activities, and the quantitative targets to achieve the 10-point agenda.

Neri said existing inter-agency committees will serve as the technical working groups during the plan formulation, while the Cabinet clusters on economy, social development and security will function as the "clearing" bodies of the MTPDP and MTPIP.

The joint Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) is scheduled to approve both the MTPDP and MTPIP by Oct. 11, 2004 while President expects to receive the regional development plans/investment programs not later than Nov. 25, 2004.

Meanwhile, the Arroyo administration has identified seven "fighting" targets within the next six years, anchored on creating 10 million new jobs, increasing growth to a sustainable rate of seven percent, bringing poverty incidence from 34 percent to 17 percent, increasing investment rate from 19 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 28 percent in two years, increasing exports from $38 billion to $50 billion in two years, developing two million hectares of agri-business land, and developing and supporting two million entrepreneurs.