THE National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on Friday assured the public that construction works for the Build, Build, Build infrastructure are guided by minimum health standards.
In a virtual press briefing, NEDA Acting Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said that majority of the Build, Build, Build projects have already resumed.
“I’m referring to flagship programs and other regular programs in particular at the local level,” Chua said.
Last June, the Palace announced that the government has resumed works for the infrastructure initiative. Some projects that have resumed are the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link, the NLEx-SLEx Connector, R-1 Bridge project, Cavite-Laguna Expressway, Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, and the Subic Freeport Expressway.
“All of these are under the guidance of DOH (Department of Health) health standards,” Chua said.Among the health protocols are physical distancing, proper wearing of face masks, sanitation, and proper hand-washing.
“The moment we see any concern on health, we will have to slow down a bit but for those that are adequately provided we will have to speed them up,” Chua said.He also noted that the Build, Build, Build program is seen to create around a million direct and in-direct jobs.
“In general, what we see here is every P1 million spent on the infrastructure program, we are seeing around one job that is being created,” he said.
“So our infrastructure program, when we resume fully, is going to create around a million jobs both direct and in-direct,” he added.
Results of the latest Labor Force Survey released in April showed the unemployment rate rose to a record-high 17.7%, equivalent to 7.3 million jobless Filipino, reflecting the economic fallout from lockdown measures to arrest COVID-19 spread.
Nevertheless, the government is banking on the infrastructure program to boost the economy and create jobs.
“Coming from the experience in the past few years, we see significant boost to domestic demand as we resume as many of the infrastructure programs and as we create the jobs associated with it,” Chua said.(GMA News)
