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MANILA - The National Economic and Development Authority expects to complete updating the country's medium-term plan by June next year, with the agency introducing measures to strengthen the medium enterprise sector.
Dr. Rosemarie Edillon, director of NEDA-National Planning and Policy Staff, said industries in the Philippines are polarized, adding that it was important to address bottlenecks confronting medium enterprises.
“We have a lot of small-scale enterprises, which include sari-sari stores, and these enterprises are really outside of the mainstream system in terms of rules, regulations and taxation. On the other hand, we also have big enterprises and firms that are already embedded in the system but enjoy some incentives as well. Unfortunately, there is this missing middle. We are currently pinpointing barriers confronting medium-scale enterprises, which are the sort of industries that lead to inclusive growth,” Edillon said.
She said the key to inclusive growth is employment generation and promotion of industries that benefits all, especially the poor.
“The government is very keen on identifying strategies for providing jobs, in particular, quality jobs. These are not jobs that will employ people to clean the streets for 100 days, which are short-term and very unsustainable,” Edillon added.
The Philippine Development Plan for 2011 to 2016 already outlines strategies that would help generate employment and lower the cost of doing business. These include infrastructure development, addressing the high cost of power and reforming existing rules and regulations, including automation of transactions.
“Another sure strategy for inclusive growth would be to support the agro-industry sector. It links the agriculture sector, which hosts most of the poor, with the industry sector, which presents more opportunities for value adding and development of medium-scale enterprises,” Edillon said.
She said the updated plan will continue to be anchored on institutional and governance reforms, which also supports growth of medium-size enterprises.
“We noted that the country’s economic figures in the first half of 2012 were fueled by optimism, both from the business sector and consumers. But there are limits to the extent that this optimism will support growth. This is why the government has to continue to deliver in terms of institutional reforms,” she said.
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