To end poverty, Phl must grow 6.7%/yr over 15 years – NEDA

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines needs to grow an average of 6.7 percent in gross domestic product (GDP) over the next 15 years in its bid to eradicate poverty.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority director general Arsenio M. Balisacan likewise said the economy must not only grow at an increased rate but register inclusive growth.

Speaking at the Philippines Inclusive Business Forum last Monday, Balisacan said the country’s approach to development must include the poor. “Inclusive growth represents a paradigm shift for reducing poverty, versus exclusive growth and trickle-down effect,” he said.

Exclusive growth refers to a few benefiting from strong growth, while trickle-down growth sees some of the benefits of positive growth reaching the poor, although in a long period of time and in limited amounts.

Balisacan said inclusive growth includes the poor and marginalized groups in the growth process. This presents a better chance for the poor to benefit from growth.

The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) has outlined strategies to achieve inclusive growth. Most of these are needed for rapid and sustained growth. For inclusive growth, these strategies have to be targeted to benefit the poor and the marginalized, mostly located in rural areas.

Included in the strategies is massive infrastructure development that will ultimately connect the rural and marginalized areas with the urbanized centers and cities.

There is likewise human development and human capital formation that will ensure that productive sectors would have the pool of skills they would need for a growing economy and at the same time, improve the capacities of the poor to benefit from growth.

That must be complemented by employment generation, starting with short-term employment while implementing public works like rehabilitation of infrastructure in disaster-affected areas, construction of other small infrastructure, and other activities.

 “At the same time that the infrastructure is built, the poor are able to earn incomes and learn new skills,” the economic planning chief said.

 “We acknowledge that there are those who cannot be directly involved in the growth process but we have to ensure their basic right to live decent lives. For them, government is implementing targeted poverty reduction programs,” Balisacan said.

He said the proportion of poor Filipinos have only ‘plateaued’ from 2000 to 2009 when this should have gone down given the continuous economic growth at the time.

 “This is why we term this period as our “lost decade,” he added.

He said the Philippines suffers from a state of high-income inequality, which indicates that economic gains have not been broadly distributed across the different sectors of the country’s population.