MANILA – Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Saturday boasted that the Philippines is at the forefront of the Asia and the Pacific’s development.
“I am particularly proud of the fact that the Philippines is fully engaged with the rapid growth of the region,” Dominguez said in during the Opening Session of the Board of Governors at the 51st ADB Annual Meeting in Pasig City.
The Finance chief also sits as this year’s chairman of the ADB’s Board of Governors with the Philippines as host country of the annual meeting.
“Fully capacitated by the economic reforms and more efficient institutions built over the past three decades, the country is at the forefront of the region’s remarkable development,” Dominguez said.
The Cabinet official recalled that in the past two years the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an average of 6.7 percent.
“We seek to grow at 7 percent on a sustained basis. By 2022, we expect to bring down the poverty rate to just 14 percent,” he said.
Dominguez also cited the Duterte administration’s comprehensive tax reform program aimed at further expanding the fiscal space to make possible immense investments in infrastructure and human capital.
“Our ambitious infrastructure program benefits from the support of the ADB and other partner development institutions. With this program, we will increase public sector infrastructure spending to 7.3 percent of GDP by 2022. This program will link all islands and make all communities part of the mainstream of wealth creation,” he said.
“The infrastructure program will, at the same time, reduce our vulnerability to natural calamities. It will also foster the growth of manufactures that will lessen our dependence on remittances from overseas workers and from the business process outsourcing sector,” he added.
The Finance chief said that the “center of gravity of the global economy” has decisively shifted to Asia. The world’s two most populous countries – China and India – are now among the planet’s largest economies.
“They have become the principal engines of growth for the global economy,” Dominguez said.
“The ASEAN region, a common market with 640 million consumers, includes some of the fastest growing economies,” he added.
This year’s ADB chair also took note that the Asia-Pacific region stands as “compelling proof” that free trade brings rapid progress in a period haunted by rising protectionist regimes and threatened by autarkic politics.
“This part of the world, after all, saw the liberation of hundreds of millions of people from the grip of poverty. Over the next few years, this part of the world will demonstrate to the rest that free markets are adapting to rapidly changing technologies that provide the best conditions for inclusive growth,” Dominguez said.
“The Asia-Pacific is proud of its economic achievement over the past few decades,” he added.
The Finance chief cited the ADB’s role in the region’s economic achievement.
“We are encouraged by the ADB 2030 Strategy formulated by the present leadership of the institution,” Dominguez said.
“This roadmap offers a new vision and strategy for the Bank to maintain its relevance and improve its capacity to adapt to changing conditions,” he said.
“It is fortunate that the Bank today has sufficient financial resources to enable it to boldly expand operations and respond in a highly-differentiated way to the growing diversity and aspirations of the member-countries,” he added. (GMA News)
