Dominguez optimistic on 7% GDP growth
CAPAS, Tarlac: Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd is confident that the country’s economy could grow by at least seven percent in the medium term on the back of the government’s “mammoth investment” of up to P9 trillion for the rest of Duterte’s presidency.
Dominguez made the forecast during an economic briefing at the construction site of the National Government Administrative Center in New Clark City (NCC) here, saying that the “Build, Build, Build (BBB)” infrastructure program will create jobs, attract investments, and disperse growth in the countryside.
Dominguez said that in the first five months of 2018 alone, national government spending on infrastructure has reached P281 billion, representing an increase of 42 percent over the same period last year. This is on top of private sector construction and public sector projects financed through public-private partnerships.
Dominguez said that with P281 billion invested into infrastructure in the first five months, the government has averaged close to P56 billion a month in spending on BBB.
Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez 3rd PHOTO BY RUSSELL PALMA
Moreover, with 30 percent of this spending going to wages, about P17 billion is infused into the economy per month in the form of additional income and purchasing power for workers, on top of creating some 100,000 new jobs, spurring economic activity in related sectors and other multiplier effects.
“Build, Build, Build will drastically alter the Philippine economic landscape. It will create over a million jobs per year. It will bring our logistics backbone up to par in a region that is growing very dynamically,” he said.
Dominguez said that combined with other reforms such as the long overdue modernization of the tax system and improvement in the ease of doing business, the Duterte administration envisions the infrastructure program to reduce poverty incidence by a third of the 2015 level of 21.6 percent to 14 percent by 2022.
“This will be the absolute measure of success of our strategy of inclusive growth. This is the goal that has been set for us by President Duterte, and this is how we are implementing it,” he said.
“We fully aspire to be the fastest growing economy in the fastest growing region in the world. This will not be an easy task to accomplish but we are ready to meet the challenges, driven by the optimism of our people, the confidence of our development partners, and the leadership of President Duterte,” he added.
Joining Dominguez in the event were the rest of the BBB Economic Team: Secretaries Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic and Development Authority; Mark Villar of the Department of Public Works and Highways; Arthur Tugade of the Department of Transportation; and Vivencio Dizon, president and chief executive officer of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority along with MTD Clark, Inc. chairman Isaac David and MTD Clark, Inc. president Nicholas David.
The BBB team took the media on a tour of NCC to show to them “the progress of the infrastructure program as it is actually unfolding on the ground where a new Filipino future is being built.”
NCC, located within the Clark Special Economic Zone spanning Angeles City in Pampanga and the towns of Capas and Bamban in Tarlac, is among the 75 high-impact flagship projects of the Duterte administration under the BBB program.
Construction is set to start this year on three main structures inside the city — the P1.78 billion Clark Green City Government Center, P850-million Clark Commercial Center, and the P3.33-billion Clark Mixed-Income Housing, according to data from the International Finance Group of the Department of Finance (DOF).
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