GMA reconstitutes NEDA Board

President Arroyo has reconstituted the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board, the country’s social and economic development planning and policy coordinating body, adding eight new members and replacing five original members.

The President issued Administrative Order 148 on April 22 reorganizing the NEDA Board "to conserve the executive time of Cabinet secretaries by not requiring them to attend more meetings than necessary" in the light of the creation of three Cabinet groups, namely, the NEDA Cabinet Group, the National Security Council Cabinet Group and the National Anti-Poverty Commission Cabinet Group.

"These were established for the effective and efficient discussion and implementation of the President’s 10-Point Agenda. The Executive Secretary is a member of all Cabinet groups," the NEDA said.

Mrs. Arroyo, who chairs the board, also authorized the NEDA chief, currently Director General Romulo Neri, to invite private sector representatives to attend the NEDA Board meetings depending on the agenda.

The new members include the secretary of the Department of Tourism and chairpersons of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Metro Manila Development Authority, Commission of Information and Communications Technology, and Subic-Clark Area Development Council, the Presidential advisers for New Government Centers and Job Creation and the president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines.

The five original members who are no longer members of the NEDA Board are the Secretaries of Labor and Employment, Interior and Local Government, Health, Foreign Affairs, and Agrarian Reform.

Board members are the NEDA director-general, who is the vice-chairperson, the secretaries of Agriculture, Budget and Management, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, Finance, Public Works and Highways, Science and Technology, Trade and Industry and Transportation and Communications, the deputy governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. — Paolo S. Romero, Ted P. Torres