Competitive boost results from China trip

The productive capacity of the economy will improve, will be enhanced and hence the productivity of labor will increase and that’s what will, in the end, support continuing rises in wages and those increases

China could offer investments that create jobs in manufacturing, tourism, agricultural business and logistics to make the Philippines more competitive, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

Balisacan made the statement after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. signed 14 bilateral agreements with China during his most recent state visit.

The effects of those agreements, according to Balisacan, will not just be felt in the short term, like inflation, but also in the medium and long term, when investments increase employment, boost the competitiveness of local businesses and industries and support better service delivery methods.

“The productive capacity of the economy will improve, will be enhanced, and hence the productivity of labor will increase and that’s what will, in the end, support continuing rises in wages and those increases,” Balisacan said.

Balisacan, also the National Economic and Development Authority director general, said he underscored that the Philippines “must move fast” to secure opportunities such as the new agreements with China.

“As you know, because (if) you don’t seize (the opportunities), when they arise, and then you may lose them just like what happened when we missed the Koreans, when we’re looking for home bases for their manufacturing plants,” Balisacan said.

Deals with China back dev’t plan

The medium-term strategic areas listed in the recently finished PDP are extremely similar to the areas covered by those various agreements, according to Balisacan.

“So it’s very promising again to say that PDP will be in a way supported by trust like this and we need to move fast again. As I said, move fast, seize the opportunities, get our houses into order. We have so many things to fix,” Balisacan said.

The PDP, which is the organization’s five-year plan, is described on the NEDA website as “for deep economic and social transformation to reinvigorate job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the economy back on a high-growth path.”