The Philippines on Friday pushed for financial resiliency and investing in infrastructure among the member-economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) as measures that would promote inclusive growth in the region.
“The recognition of the need for financial resiliency and infrastructure development has put these on the Apec agenda. Boosting financial resiliency and infrastructure development poses the benefit of ensuring that economic gains of the region can be sustained. Also, it gives a better fighting chance for member-economies to enhance inclusivity of growth moving forward,” Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said in one of the discussions during the last day of the Apec Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting in Tagaytay City.
Financial resiliency and infrastructure development are the third and fourth pillars of the Cebu Action Plan, a medium- to long-term development road map for Asia-Pacific economies proposed by the Philippines.
Beltran said that in the case of the Philippines, its efforts to trim the government’s budget deficit and bring down the debt burden have given the economy enough fiscal space to respond to global economic shocks and natural disasters.
The expenses required for reconstruction and recovery of areas hit by natural disasters were partly accommodated by the national budget without causing fiscal woes.
In the area of investing in infrastructure, Beltran said that the Public-Private Partnership Program has allowed the private sector to invest in more public infrastructure projects.
The government had also consistently raised the allocation in the budget for infrastructure projects, which the government aims to be at least 5 percent of the gross domestic product by 2016.
The two other pillars of the Cebu Action Plan are: financial integration, and fiscal transparency and policy reform. These two were discussed on the first day of the Apec deputies’ meeting on Thursday.
Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said the realization of the plans within each pillar of the Cebu Action Plan will boost the efforts of the Apec economies in achieving financial inclusion in the region.
“Building structures and buffers through the Cebu Action Plan to buttress against these threats makes for a less vulnerable and more resilient Asia-Pacific region. Infrastructure development, on the other hand, is our region’s investment toward future growth.
Enhanced connectivity and mobility to support our growing populations will allow economies in the Asia-Pacific region to capitalize on their demographic dividends,” Purisima said in his statement at the end of the meetings.