With infra program, PH seen to hit GDP growth targets

CAPAS, TARLAC—The ambitious “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program will bolster gross domestic product (GDP) growth to at least the lower end of the government’s target in the medium term, economic managers said yesterday.

“The ‘Build, Build, Build’ program is a package of major infrastructure projects that will have a strategic impact on our economic growth. We plan to spend between P8 trillion and P9 trillion over the medium term,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said in a speech at the site of the soon-to-rise National Government Administrative Center in New Clark City.

Dominguez said the mammoth investment would have a tremendous impact on investment growth and job generation. “It will stimulate economic expansion and help us realize a 7-percent or better GDP growth rate a year.”
The government targets a 7- to 8-percent GDP expansion yearly from 2018 to 2022.

Also, the massive infrastructure program “will help disperse economic activity by ensuring no island or community is left behind” as “it will improve our competitiveness by bringing down the costs of moving goods and people across our country,” he added.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said “these are exciting times as we continue to pursue our most ambitious infrastructure program to date.”

Pernia said there were almost 5,000 projects under the Public Investment Program 2017-2022. These include the administration’s 75 flagship projects, 32 of which are targeted for completion by the end of the President’s term in 2022, Pernia said.