EO 166 to speed up recovery
THE executive order recently issued by President Rodrigo Duterte will help accelerate the country’s economic recovery, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Finance (DoF) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Thursday.
In a joint statement, NEDA, DoF and DTI welcomed the signing of Executive Order 166, noting that this will strengthen the implementation of the Economic
Development Cluster’s (EDC) 10-point policy agenda to sustain the country’s recovery.
EO 166, which was signed on March 21, calls for a whole-ofgovernment approach to streamline and implement recovery programs and measures addressing the urgent need to adopt policies on economic recovery to sustain economic gains and minimize the pandemic’s long-term adverse effects.
“We laud the President [Rodrigo Duterte] for taking decisive steps to align our economic recovery programs. These strategies will sustain our strong rebound from the pandemic and restore our path to rapid and inclusive growth this year and beyond,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd said.
EDC’s 10-point policy agenda, meanwhile, seeks to strengthen health care capacity, accelerate and expand the vaccination program, further reopen the economy and expand public transport capacity, resume face-to-face learning and reduce restrictions on domestic travel.
The policy agenda also seeks to standardize local government requirements, relax requirements for international travel, accelerate digital transformation, provide for enhanced and flexible emergency measures, shift the focus of decision-making and government reporting to more useful and empowering metrics, and enhance medium-term preparation for pandemic resilience.
“Today, we see more businesses operating and more Filipinos able to go to work. Through the EO, we will be able to help more firms adapt and pursue the full and safe reopening of the economy,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
NEDA Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, meanwhile, said they will continue to pursue the remaining agenda items to help improve growth prospects and safeguard the domestic economy against external shocks such as the RussiaUkraine crisis.
Chua said the country has made significant progress in the implementation of the 10-point policy.
He said that since March 15, 2022, 70 percent of the economy has already shifted to Alert Level 1, where most capacity and travel restrictions have been lifted.
Under Alert Level 1, NEDA estimates that the economy can gain around P10.8 billion per week of economic activity and reduce the number of unemployed by around 195,000 over the next quarter, compared to Alert Level 2.