Accomplished roadmaps before the next President

There should be accomplished agriculture roadmaps before July 1, the first day of the next President’s term. This is because he or she should hit the ground running, instead of spending precious time trying to find out what to do in agriculture.

The Free Dictionary defines roadmap as “a plan or guide for future actions.” The website www.ppm.roadmap.com provides a broader perspective: “See the big picture, or how the team can get to Friday.” A roadmap gives you that flexibility and the details.” Of course, effective agriculture roadmaps should go beyond these general definitions.

Roadmap requirements

First, it should not just be a survey of a sector’s stakeholder views. Instead, it should follow a comprehensive outline that includes well-researched components such as the sector’s current situation, its comparative advantages and disadvantages, its positioning in the global trade regime, and its opportunities and challenges (such as smuggling), and the recommended short and long term policies, plans and programs.

The outline for the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) roadmap was first done when I was trade undersecretary in 1987. Board of Investments (BOI)-registered investments rose from P3 billion to more than P400 billion in four years. Unfortunately, the attempted coup d etat’s put a break to this upward trend. In 2011, as a private sector contributor encouraged by industry Ieaders, I worked with a small group including Jose Sereno, formerly connected to the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI), and Mia Faustman, formerly connected to Sycip, Gorres and Velayo (SGV) on an improved roadmap outline.

We submitted this to Mckenzie Consulting firm officials for their inputs. We later forwarded the outline to the BOI management, which further enhanced it. This subsequently served as the guiding template for the 29 DTI industry sub-sector roadmaps submitted to the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS), an attached agency of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).

The 2015 Global Road to Think Tank Report at the University of Pennsylvania named PIDS, now under Guilbert Llanto, as among the world’s top think tanks. It was the top social policy think tank in Southeast Asia, and ranked 37th among the 6,600 think tanks from 198 countries in the world.

It was, therefore, with great expectations that agriculture stakeholders were waiting for the Department of Agriculture to submit its roadmaps to PIDS. PIDS could then strengthen these roadmaps and integrate the DA and DTI submissions to provide a united roadmap for our needed agro-industrial development. To date, the DTI has submitted 29 roadmaps, while the DA has not provided even one. This should change in the next few months.

It is argued that agriculture contributes only 10 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But with food processing and ancillary services, this increases to 40 percent. It should also be noted that the biggest sector in manufacturing is the food industry, which derives its inputs from agriculture. Agriculture is therefore key to our development, and is an absolute necessity for inclusive growth because of the current 40 percent rural poverty.

Roadmap objections

At a DA meeting on March 4, the executive director of a private agriculture association said that focusing on agriculture roadmaps toward the end of this term would not be a useful exercise. He added three objections. First, different government agencies are doing the same roadmaps without talking to each other. Second, the government-created roadmaps were often not made with enough private sector involvement and, therefore, lacked their acceptance and commitment. Third, events move too fast for any roadmap to be useful.

The way the DTI roadmaps were formulated makes invalid these three objections. First, there is only one roadmap for each sector. All the different agencies that may be doing roadmaps submit the relevant components to a designated BOI director, who coordinates all the government submissions.

Second, a private sector champion and his or her team take primary responsibility for formulating and submitting the roadmap. They are backed up by a private-public sector team for each sector. The private sector champion and the BOI director then take the lead in helping implement the roadmap.

Third, consistent with the early definition given that roadmaps provide flexibility, the roadmap becomes a living document with timely changes to ensure that it remains relevant and useful.

There are three and a half months left before the new president takes over.  While the politicians are busy campaigning, the bureaucracy must use this time and work harder than ever to finalize the submissions and integration of the agriculture and industry roadmaps.

This game-changing work has never been done, and will be a valuable legacy for the next government and the nation as a whole.

The author is chair of Agriwatch, former secretary for Presidential Flagship Programs and Projects, and former undersecretary for agriculture, trade and industry. For inquiries, e-mail [email protected] or telefax  8522112.