Government vows to sustain key reforms for investments

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos administration has vowed to sustain key reforms and to create an environment conducive for investments to achieve its goal of turning the Philippines into an upper middle-income country.

The Philippines still belongs to the lower middle-income category, according to the latest World Bank country income classification, which assigns economies based on the gross national income (GNI) per capita of the previous calendar year.

The country posted a GNI per capita of $4,470, only $26 short of the $4,496 to $13,935 requirement to be included in the upper middle-income category.

Lower middle-income countries are those with a GNI per capita of $1,136 to $4,495.

“What the government will do is strengthen the macroeconomic foundation and continue the reforms in infrastructure, education, innovation and digitalization,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing last Friday.

The administration would also continue implementing laws like the Ease of Doing Business Act, CREATE MORE Act and the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) Code, she added.

The Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act seeks to cut red tape, fast-track the processing of transactions and streamline the procedures for the issuance of permits, clearance and other type of authorizations.

The CREATE MORE law aims to provide competitive incentives to strategic and highly desirable investments while the PPP Code is designed to support high-quality social and development infrastructure.

“We are positive that we would reach the upper middle-income group during the time of President Marcos Jr.,” Castro said.