STATEMENT OF SOCIOECONOMIC PLANNING SECRETARY

ERNESTO M. PERNIA

#ASKNEDA MEDIA BRIEFING

June 27, 2018 | 12 noon – 1:30 pm | NEDA Boardroom

 

Friends from the media,

Colleagues from NEDA,

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

We welcome to the third #AskNEDA media briefing. It is good to see you all here again , and thank you for continuing to support us in our communication initiatives.

We have two topics today. First, we discuss updates on infrastructure. As I always emphasize – with our media and our stakeholders in the private sector as audience — infrastructure is crucial to economic growth. We recognize infrastructure’s pivotal role in connecting our peoples, boosting economic competitiveness in the regions, reducing poverty and inequality, and strengthening communities’ disaster resilience.

This is why the Duterte administration will focus its efforts on closing the infrastructure gap by accelerating infrastructure spending from about 5 percent of the GDP in 2017 to as much as 7.3 percent of GDP by 2022.

Our colleague, Assistant Secretary for Investment Programming Jonathan Uy, will provide us a report on where we are in implementing the government’s 75 Infrastructure Flagship Projects. Among other objectives, this is to ensure greater precision – what I call in academic conversations, punctilious accuracy in media reporting.

He will also elaborate on the infrastructure projects that were discussed and reviewed by the Investment Coordination Committee, or ICC, last June 14 as well as those were processed earlier.

Second, I am glad to announce and officially launch NEDA’s radio program, titled Tunog ng Progreso. This is in partnership with the Philippine Broadcasting Service – Bureau of Broadcast Services.

Tunog ng Progreso will be aired over A-M station, RP Uno 73.8. It will be a weekly show every Friday from 1PM to 2PM. The maiden broadcast will be on July 20.

Through the radio program, we hope to reach more Filipinos especially in the provinces and increase their awareness on economic concepts and its relevance to their everyday lives.

We hope you find today’s discussion informative and useful.

Again, thank you for being here. Thank you for your cooperation, friendship and punctilious accuracy in your reporting. Good afternoon.

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