Gov’t urged to focus on sustaining reforms

With the Philippines’ economic recovery touted at the 23rd World Economic Forum on East Asia, policymakers need to focus on sustaining reforms that lead to these gains to ensure future stability, one of the forum’s co-chairs said yesterday.

Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro, an Ecuadorian best known for her contributions to conservationism as president of the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature International, said the key means of achieving this and carry on the momentum was to implement more permanent “state policies” against those that change with every passing administration.

“We need to ensure that policies taken in this government are state policies so they can endure whatever comes next and guarantees stability in terms of governments, in terms of economic growth, in terms of how investment is made in the social agenda,” Navarro said in an interview with the Inquirer.  “I have seen what you can demonstrate today, and I cross my fingers whoever comes next in the government respects those gains,” she said. “You need to guarantee it does not change from one decade to another.”

The Philippines was one of the fastest-growing economies last year with its 7.2-percent growth in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The government is also increasing infrastructure spending while tapping private sector support through its public private partnership program.

Concerns were raised throughout the forum on uncertainties that gains might not be sustained after President Aquino, who won the 2010 polls on a platform of good governance and public transparency, steps down in two years.

Navarro, however, said she had high hopes given the experiences in other economies with similar backgrounds. “It is happening now with many countries already that were terribly unstable in the past. So I do look forward to a Philippines that really respects a vision that is not a short-term one,” she said.

Navarro added that the business community played a crucial role as the government’s partner in carrying out reforms that would result in further benefits for the economy and society.

“In the end, it doesn’t matter how much the government sets the rules if there is no private sector to be the actor of the process. It does not happen,” Navarro said.

“What we have seen in the Philippines is a good model of a society that cares for itself, that cares for its future, that cares for the whole population,” she added.