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[av_heading heading=’DREAM BIG ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY MANNY VILLAR
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BASED on their performance, the members of the economic team were the right people to implement President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s economic agenda.
The economic team headed by Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez also includes Public Works secretary Mark Villar, Transport secretary Arturo Tugade, Budget and Management secretary Benjamin Diokno, Bangko Sentral governor Nestor Espenilla, Jr. and Socioeconomic secretary Ernesto Pernia as members. Vivencio B. Dizon, president of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), also participates in the economic team’s activities to promote investments in Clark, Pampanga, among other assets.
With the administration now five months into its second year, the team has proven to be the right mix of dedicated and competent professionals – each handling his own area of responsibility, but all working together with the same goal set by the President: To improve the lives of Filipinos.
They run different organizations with pools of experts in dissimilar specializations like finance, engineering, budgeting, economic planning and banking, yet each organization complements and supports each other like the components of a well-oiled machine.
After the President’s successful engagements with the leaders and businessmen of China, Japan and Russia, it was the economic team’s turn not only to present the government’s economic programs to foreign investors, but also to showcase the investment opportunities in the Philippines, now one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia.
The presentations also include the economic prospects of the Philippines and the government’s efforts to improve the business climate as part of the mission to attract more investments in the country.
The team conducted road shows in four overseas destinations, beginning with Singapore last August 15. The second stop was Tokyo, Japan, where the team conducted an economic briefing for Japanese corporate giants on September 26, before heading to China the following day for a similar event.
With the theme “We are allies for progress,” the team held its latest overseas economic briefing on October 11.
I want to discuss the individual presentations made by the economic managers, in particular Finance secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez, Bangko Sentral governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., Budget and Management secretary Benjamin Diokno and Socioeconomic Planning secretary Ernesto Pernia, all of which have impressed their foreign audiences. Both foreign governments and investors have shown keen interest, and some have taken the first steps toward participating in the government’s infrastructure program or investing in private ventures here.
Actually, I already talked about the DPWH and its head last week, including the reforms and innovations it has adopted to undertake the infrastructure projects under the flagship “Build Build Build” program.
Secretary Villar, the youngest member of the Duterte Cabinet, heads a department whose workforce include about 10,000 engineers. According to the former member of the House of Representatives, no other organization, public or private, has a comparable engineering staff.
I just want to reiterate one of the policy innovations that Secretary Villar introduced in the department, which I expect to become a standard for implementing infrastructure projects even for succeeding administrations.
He set a maximum limit of five years for the completion of projects, to ensure that these will be completed within the President’s six-year term.
This is a significant change in the policies of the DPWH, which, in the past, left unfinished projects for succeeding administrations.
Often, projects were not continued by the new administration so as not to give credit to the predecessor, and instead launched new sets of projects, resulting in the waste of precious time and taxpayers’ money.
Under this new policy alone, the Duterte administration will likely post a record in the most infrastructure projects implemented during its term.
Financing is an essential component of the massive infrastructure program, so it is logical that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and his presentation be the focus of our discussion next week.
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This piece first came out in Business Mirror on Nov. 13, 2017 under the column “The Entrepreneur.” For comments/feedback e-mail to: mbv.secretariat@gmail.com or visitwww.mannyvillar.com.ph./PN
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