Duterte team vows to sustain robust growth

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III ALBERT ALCAIN/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO (FILE)

CLARK FREEPORT ZONE —The “golden age of economic growth” being experienced by the Philippines was a result of reforms put in place by previous administrations, the head of the Duterte administration’s economic team acknowledged yesterday.

Moving forward, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters that the “dynamic” leadership of President Duterte was set to sustain robust growth in the medium term.

On Wednesday, Kelly Bird, Asian Development Bank’s new country director for the Philippines, told a press conference that he believed the Philippines was currently experiencing a “golden age of economic growth” amid sustained expansion in over five decades.

“If we are experiencing a golden age of economic growth, this did not happen overnight. First of all, it took a lot of work. Previous administrations really set the groundwork for our growth,” Dominguez said during the roadshow for the Philippines’ hosting of the ADB’s 51st annual meeting on May 3 to 6.

“The administration of President Arroyo, first of all, avoided the big crisis that happened in 2008,” Dominguez said, referring to the global financial crisis that happened a decade ago.

“The administration of President [Benigno] Aquino [III] provided us with a lot of cash savings, so our balance sheet, when we came in, was very good,” Dominguez added.

“We have a very young and talented workforce. Our average age is 23, and these are people who have very good basic education, willing to work and have the interest to be trained. We also have very mild inflation worldwide for the last seven or eight years. So all of these factors came together,” he said.

“More importantly, the Filipinos elected a very dynamic leader in President Duterte, who has a vision for his country,” he added.

Dominguez said that the President was “very determined to do three things: Reduce poverty; make the country more law-abiding, and institute a regime of peace—peace with communist rebels, peace with Islamic separatists, and peace with our neighbors.”

“All those elements, particularly the election of President Duterte, has set us in a very good economic growth path,” Dominguez said.