BY 2023, at least half of the financial transactions in the country will be done digitally.
This is one of the targets of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as it aims to achieve a “new economy.”
The central bank said it also targets at least 70 percent of the country’s adult population to have financial accounts.
“We do not simply aim to recover. In the post-Covid era, we want to be stronger, more technologically advanced, and more inclusive than ever before,” BSP Gov. Benjamin Diokno said in a statement.
In a presentation during the 6th Joint Economic Briefing organized by various foreign business chambers, Diokno said the Philippine economy is “on the mend,” citing the government’s growth projection of six to seven percent this year and seven to nine percent in 2022.
The BSP chief cited several economic green shoots that have emerged, including the 45.1 percent surge in net inflows of foreign direct investments in the first quarter of the year, 65.6 percent increase in investment applications approved by the Board of Investments and the 53.9 percent rise in investment plans approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority in the first quarter.
Diokno also credited the bank’s bullish economic outlook to the drop in the unemployment rate from the record 17.6 percent in April last year to 7.7 percent in May 2021, increase to 50.8 of the Purchasing Managers Index in June from 49.9 in May, 19 percent growth in exports, and the 21.9 percent growth in imports in January to April this year, among others.
National ID target
Meanwhile, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua invited the youth to register for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) and contribute solutions to accelerate the growth of the digital economy in the country.
“The Covid-19 pandemic and other recent crises experienced by the country underscored the need to provide unhampered access to banking and social services for all Filipinos, especially the poor. By the end of the year, we hope to register 50 to 70 million Filipinos with the PhilSys. We envision PhilSys to spark the widespread use of electronic payments, thus accelerating growth of the digital economy,” Chua said during the 2021 BSP Youth Summit organized by the BSP on July 9, 2021.
Chua said PhilSys has the potential to be one of the most game-changing reforms of the country, as it can drastically improve the delivery of government services and make systems more resilient against future crises.
With this, he invited the youth to register and assist their family and friends, especially their elders, in registering for the national ID online. He also encouraged the participants to consider joining the government to implement their ideas on financial inclusion and digital transformation.
As of July 2, 2021, around 37.2 million individuals have been registered for Step 1 or the demographic data collection.
Some 16.2 million individuals have also completed the Step 2 registration or biometrics capture, and around 4.4 million have applied for bank accounts.
Moreover, 343,742 registrants have received their PhilID cards. (JOB)