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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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(Conclusion)
AS I MENTIONED earlier, the classification is based on the average income distribution throughout the country. It does not differentiate, in the case of the Philippines, the total income of each region.
Actually, Metro Manila can now join the upper middle-income economies. GNI per capita for each region in the Philippines is not available, but online data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) that are available online show figures about GDP per capita, which are lower because these do not include overseas income.
For the sake of discussion, we can use GDP per capita per region (GRDP), which is more conservative. Even then, Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR), on its own, can join the league of upper middle-income economies.
According to the PSA, the NCR posted the highest GRDP at P232,836 in 2016, nearly three times the national average of P78,712.
Using an exchange rate of P50 to $1, that translates to $4,656, well within the $4,036-$12,475 range for upper middle-income economies. The figure would have been higher in terms of GNI per capita, which would include overseas income.
The NCR continues to account for the largest share of the national economy at 36.6 percent of the country’s GDP. CALABARZON follows with a 16.8-percent share and Central Luzon with a 9.5-percent share. Together, these three regions account for 62.9 percent of the country’s GDP in 2016.
The good news is that economic growth is not limited to these three regions. According to the PSA, all seventeen regions posted positive economic growth from 2015 to 2016 with Eastern Visayas’ economy growing the fastest at 12.4 percent, nearly twice the NCR’s growth rate of 7.5 percent and more than twice faster than CALABARZON’s 4.8 percent.
Other growth leaders were Central Luzon, which grew by 9.5 percent; Central Visayas, 8.8 percent; Ilocos Region, 8.4 percent; Northern Mindanao, 7.6 percent; Davao Region, 9.4 percent; and Western Visayas, 6.1 percent.
This is why President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s policy of regional development could not have come at a more opportune time. Encouraging investments in the regions outside the NCR, Central Luzon and CALABARZON will help increase productivity and income in these areas, and move them closer to Metro Manila’s status.
I look at the government’s massive infrastructure program as the lead effort in developing and channeling investments in the countryside. The big players in the private sector are also pursuing their own initiatives to develop new growth areas in many parts of the country, including Mindanao.
The income rankings were not established just to show which countries are rich and which are poor. According to the World Bank, a country’s GNI tends to be closely linked with other indicators that measure the social, economic, and environmental well-being of a country and its people.
In general, people in countries high GNI per capita tend to have longer life expectancies, higher literacy rates, better access to essential services like safe water, and lower infant mortality rates.
As we improve our income ranking we should also start thinking as an upper middle-income country. Decision makers and policymakers must throw out nuisance or old style policies and replace them with policies that support a more sophisticated economy.
This is because the journey of the Philippines does not end in achieving an upper middle-income status. Achieving that target means setting our sights on a new one – joining the club of 80 high-income countries.
***
This piece first came out in Business Mirror on Oct. 23, 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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