Sustaining growth: PH can learn from APEC economies

Chris Schnabel

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Sustaining growth: PH can learn from APEC economies
Delegates from APEC member economies are in Cebu City to discuss ways to reform policies and help each other achieve inclusive growth

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Philippines’ socio-economic planning secretary said Monday, September 7, that structural reform is crucial for the country to maintain its growth momentum, as delegates from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) of the second APEC Structural Reform Ministerial Meeting (SRMM) gathered in this city.

“It is a long process that we need to keep working on and we can also learn from other APEC economies,” SRMM chair and Secretary for Economic Planning Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement.

Balisacan said these reforms can be simple policy tweaks that have already been implemented, such as removing the urine-sampling requirement to obtain a driver’s license and introducing a multipurpose government ID that holders can use at various government agencies.

They can also take a much more ambitious route such as streamlining regulation to cut down on the time and steps it takes to start a business and introducing new legislation such as the Philippine Competition Act that aims to level the economic playing field in the country.

Representatives of APEC economies are in Cebu City to discuss ways to reform its policies in order to help each other achieve inclusive growth.

The SRMM is the latest in a series of APEC meetings held for delegates to discuss economic planning integration in the run-up to the main APEC meeting to be attended by the member countries’ heads of state in Manila this November.

Helping Filipinos reach their potential

Structural reform has to do with designing government policy in order to make markets function more efficiently so that they can contribute to the attainment of social and economic objectives, said National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Deputy Director Manuel Esguerra.

It’s about removing barriers to the movement of resources so that they can be put to more productive use in raising income and employment, he explained.

“One of the important reasons why we need structural reform is that we are still a growing economy and we need to raise the rate of capital accumulation to contribute to growth momentum,” Esguerra said.

A family, for example, may have talented children but if the family does not have the means to send the child to college then the child will never realize that potential.

These reforms will open up opportunities to access funds that will allow this talented child to go to college and achieve this potential, he shared.

SETTING AGENDAS. Delegates from APEC member economies meet on September 7, 2015 in Cebu City to discuss the agendas its members will adopt for making sure economic growth reaches the poor.

5 priority areas

Esquerra shared that delegate discussions during the SRRM will revolve around the following 5 topics that also directly relate to the country’s own priorities.

  1. Structural reform for inclusive growth. Inclusive growth is central to the Philippine development plan and the meeting aims to ensure this. When you remove barriers to flow of resoruces to high productivity areas and increase employment that is making growth more inclusive.
  2. Structural reform for innovation. Innovation contributes to the growth process and we want to see a situation where government policies are designed to support this so that entrepreneurs are encouraged to find ways of being competitive and contributing to investment.
  3. Structural reform and services. The services sector is dominant both in terms of contribution to gross domestic productn and employment. It also dominates the economies of other APEC nations.
  4. Tools for structural reform: Advancing work on Good Regulatory Practices (GRP) and fostering regulatory cooperation and standard legal instruments is essential for trade to flourish throughout the APEC region.
  5. New directions for structural reform in APEC. The SRRM is only the second one in APEC since the 2008 meeting in Australia where ministers agreed on structural reform agenda. In 2010 the APEC New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSRR) was launched.

Five years on, APEC member economies will once again meet to review the progress has been made since then. There will also be sharing of lessons learned between APEC member economies.

At the end of the meeting on September 8, a post-2015 agenda will be announced that will be APEC’s agenda for the future, to be named Renewed APEC Agenda on Structural Reform (RAASR).

Rory Mcleod, Chair of the APEC economic committee said if we have rules that are light and easy to follow, it makes it easier for groups like women, small businesses, or people from disadvantaged regions to get involved in business and be part of the economy.

“To put it simply, we want to make it a lot easier for businesses to operate as whole,” he said. – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!