Former economic planner cites focus for new mid-term plan

A FORMER socioeconomic planner said over the weekend that the government should not forget the need to develop human resources and should ensure concrete results in its priority infrastructure projects under the 2011-2016 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP).

Central bank consultant and former economic planning minister Vicente B. Valdepeñas, Jr. said in a forum at the University of the Philippines on Saturday that cutting the budget of state universities and colleges (SUCs) and channeling the money to the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program may reap short-term benefits for the select poor, but will deprive the country’s future work force of resources for their development.

"Invest in human resource through SUCs; be consistent and coherent [with your human resource development thrust]." Mr. Valdepeñas said.

He added that the government should "go on with your PPP [public-private partnership] projects and find the will power to implement them."

In the same forum, NEDA Director-General Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr. said his agency is now identifying areas which are "bottlenecks for development," as it prepares the MTPDP for submission to President Benigno S. C. Aquino III on Jan. 6 next year.

Mr. Paderanga added that Cabinet officials are also set to meet this week to discuss details of the Aquino administration’s development agenda.

NEDA Deputy Director-General Augusto B. Santos said in a phone interview yesterday that the government acknowledges the need to invest in human resource development, particularly in the areas of education, health and nutrition.

"If we invest in those three subsectors, gross domestic product will grow," he said, adding that the government’s CCT program actually addresses some of these concerns since it requires beneficiaries to ensure their children attend school and mothers visit health centers.

However, he said that although the government should target investment in all levels of education, its current priority is basic education because this level targets children who are in their formative years.

Commenting on PPP projects, Mr. Santos said the government aims to amend guidelines for the build-operate-transfer scheme and its variants by the first quarter next year in order to better attract investors.

He added that the government is considering giving guarantees even to unsolicited proposals for as long as the projects concerned are proven to be economically viable. He said economically viable projects are those which clearly contribute to the country’s economic development and assure appropriate revenues for the government. -- JJAC