NEDA Releases a New Five-Year Development Plan for The Philippines
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) released a new development plan for this year until 2028. The plan targets economic growth, unemployment, and poverty reduction as the government focuses on returning the economy to a high-growth path.
The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) for 2023 to 2028 targets a deep economic and social transformation in order to encourage job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the economy back on a high-growth path.
The PDP stated, “Over the next six years, the development agenda of the Philippines will be guided by the headline targets that prioritize poverty reduction and inclusive growth.”
Under the PDP, the focus is to keep high levels of economic growth from six to seven percent this year to 6.5 to eight percent yearly from 2024 to 2028.
The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 7.7% from January to September 2022.
The PDP also shows the country is focusing on making progress in terms of innovation by rising in rank in the Global Innovation Index, from a baseline rank of 59th out of 132 countries last year to 57th this year. They aim to rank 54th in 2024, 52nd in 2025, 49th in 2026, 46th in 2027, and 43rd by 2028.
The PDP declared, “Similarly, the country will be ranked among the top 33 percent in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) by 2028.”
In 2019, the Philippines was in the top 45% of the GCI.
The development plan also aims to create more and better-quality jobs. It set unemployment rate targets of 5.3 to 6.4% this year, 4.4 to 4.7% next year, 4.8 to 5.1% in 2025, and 4 to 5% yearly from 2026 to 2028.
According to PDP, by 2028, the wage and salary of workers in private entities to total employed are targeted to be within 53 to 55%.
In terms of gross national income per capita, the PDP shows that from a baseline of $3,640 in 2021, it is targeted to bring this to $6,044 to $6,571 by 2028.
The PDP also seeks to decrease the poverty incidence rate from 18.1 percent in 2021 to 16% to 16.4% this year, 12.9 to 13.2%t in 2025, 10 to 10.3%in 2027, and 8.8 to 9% by 2028.
PDP noted, “This is expected to result from sustained economic growth that generates more and better-quality jobs and is supported by an efficient social protection system.”
The PDP also seeks to keep food and overall prices low and stable. The goal is for the food and headline inflation to be within 2.5 to 4.5% this year and 2 to 4% yearly from 2024 to 2028.
From January to November last year, food inflation averaged 5.7%, while the average headline inflation for the 11-month period is at 5.6%.
NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan cited, “The Marcos administration’s PDP 2023 to 2028 seeks to build on the significant gains the country has achieved in the past two decades, mindful of some setbacks caused by the pandemic.”
Balisacan stated that NEDA would work with several agencies and private sectors as well as submit regular reports to the President on the status and impact of the PDP’s implementation.
