New 5-year Philippine Development Plan approved

MANILA, Philippines — The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board has approved the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) that will serve as the country’s socioeconomic development blueprint for 2023 until 2028.

During the Saturday News Forum, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the NEDA Board chaired by President Marcos approved the proposed PDP last Friday.

Balisacan said NEDA has also been instructed to proceed with the PDP’s finalization.

“Completed in record time – just six months into President Marcos’ term – the PDP is our plan for economic and social transformation,” Balisacan said in a statement.

Under the PDP, the government’s goal is to promote job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the economy back to its high-growth path.

According to Balisacan, the PDP is anchored to the AmBisyon Natin 2040, the country’s long-term vision of Filipinos enjoying a strongly rooted, comfortable, and secure life by 2040.

He also said the PDP is framed by the current administration’s eight-point socioeconomic agenda, which seeks to address short-term issues faced by the country including managing inflation and protecting the purchasing power of Filipinos, addressing the socioeconomic scarring due to the pandemic, and providing targeted assistance to vulnerable groups as well as medium-term constraints to rapid growth and inclusion.

“Ready for implementation, the plan aims to transform our production and social sectors and create an enabling landscape through our institutions and environment,” Balisacan said.

Furthermore, strategies under the plan include digitalization of government processes and public services, as well as improving local and global connectivity of markets and the integration of leading and lagging regions.

Other strategies include building information and communications technology, creatives, tourism, and logistics ecosystems around manufacturing clusters; building a dynamic innovation ecosystem; harnessing the private sector’s resources, technologies, and potential for scale economies through public-private partnerships; and ensuring the effective devolution of critical social services to local governments.

Balisacan said NEDA would deliver the final version of the PDP for 2023 to 2028 by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the PDP would be officially launched to the public next month.

Following the NEDA Board’s approval of the PDP, a draft executive order has been submitted to the Office of the President mandating all government agencies to align their respective programs, projects, and activities with the PDP.

“Given the uncertainties and headwinds that we face, the plan is our roadmap that will show us the way forward, guiding our efforts and initiatives as we sustain our robust economic recovery and aspire for no less than the economic and social transformation of our country towards a matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay for all Filipinos,” Balisacan said.