After one year in office, what can the Marcos Jr. administration consider as its key accomplishment?
Economists agree it’s none other than reopening the Philippine economy after three years of stagnation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reopening the economy, and leading it toward normalcy from the debilitating lockdowns that were among the longest in the world, has been a priority of the Marcos administration.
It has also started investing in the future by setting the goal of becoming a middle-income status country by the end of its term in 2028.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many global banks were predicting that the Philippines would become a big economy by 2050 and beyond.
The Philippine economy would certainly benefit from what economists call the “demographic sweet spot” or the demographic dividend that comes from having a huge population with one-half of them already part of the labor force.
The Philippines actually has one of the biggest populations in the world, at 12th place with more than 110 million Filipinos.
This would be a key ingredient in the country’s economic advance.
The countries enjoying the demographic sweet spot would be among the dominant economies by 2050.
Transforming that advantage into sustained economic growth in the years ahead would require, however, a well-educated work force.
This underscores the importance of upgrading the country’s educational system so that future generations can acquire the necessary knowledge and skills needed for consistent economic growth and improvements in the standard of living of Filipinos.
We have to invest more in the education of our youth so that the economy would benefit in the long run.
With the country returning to an average annual growth rate of at least 6 percent, the government should further open up the economy through structural reforms and policies that would attract investments both from domestic and foreign sources, cut red tape and facilitate the ease of doing business.
Improving the country’s economic situation remains a priority of his administration, the President himself has said.
“Whatever it is that we have managed to do, there is still a great deal more to do. We have to work smart, and we have to work well, and we have to be very conscious…We have to bear in mind that the international situation has changed, in terms of trade, in terms of geopolitics.
“It is very clear that the most successful economies are those that are agile and resilient. And we have to put the basic elements in place to do that.”
