THE incoming Duterte administration is prioritizing infrastructure projects outside Metro Manila to generate employment in the countryside, help decongest the nation's capital, and attain inclusive growth.
This was emphasized by incoming Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez in a press conference at the opening day of "Sulong Pilipinas: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran" consultative workshop at the SMX Convention Center in Lanang in Monday, June 20.
"I just went through a briefing with the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) Center which is under Neda (National Economic and Development Authority) and I was really amazed that around 80 percent of the proposed projects are in or around Mega Manila composed of Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon), Central Luzon, and Metro Manila," he said.
"So if you're not a pro-active government in pushing the projects outside into the regions, they will all congregate around Mega Manila where two-thirds of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is produced," he added.
Dominguez wants more school buildings to be built outside Mega Manila especially in outlying areas.
He pointed out that "after all, our President-elect was an outlier, wasn't he?"
Over the last six years, he said, the 12 approved PPP projects took an average of 29 months to implement.
Dominguez said "I think we can cut that down to maybe 18 to 20 months through speedier and more pro-active processing of these projects."
He noted that out of 42 million Filipinos in the workforce, statistics show about 10 million are underemployed and most live in the rural areas.
"It's very important that jobs are created in the countryside if we're going to be an inclusive government, so those are the areas we will prioritize," he said.
The next government will allow PPP projects to proceed and accelerate more infrastructure projects outside the national capital region.
"We've already said several times that we will not follow the last administration's policies where basically they stopped the PPP projects for two years.
"That's why the growth rate really dropped on the second year of the previous administration because they didn't proceed to make the projects," Dominguez reiterated.