Former Asian Development Bank (ADB) lead economist Ernesto M. Pernia is prepared to accept the position of economic planning secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) director general under President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Pernia, a professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, said he is ready to take on the challenge to help the incoming Duterte administration grow the economy by 7 percent.
“I’m keen on accepting the offer to head the Neda. We have many economic priorities, which I will detail later on,” Pernia told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview on Sunday.
The Duterte administration has already bared its eight-point agenda ahead of the announcement of Pernia’s appointment. The agenda bares the socioeconomic priorities of the new administration.
It includes addressing the restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution; providing small farmers support services in pursuit of agricultural development; and expanding the Conditional Cash- Transfer Program, among others.
Pernia specializes in demographic economics, and has been one of the staunch supporters of the implementation of the reproductive-health law.
His other research interests include development economics and human-resource economics.
Pernia was lead economist at the Economics and Research Department of the ADB; regional adviser, population and employment policy and research, international labor office for Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok); and was research fellow, East-West Center Resource Systems Institute, Honolulu.