THE government will continue with its Build, Build, Build program since it will be one of the main drivers of the economy.
But the new socioeconomic chief said government needs to determine which projects will have the “maximum impact” to support the economy’s recovery following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Karl Kendrick Chua, National Economic and Development Authority acting secretary, said one of the marching orders given by Malacanang is to support the country’s Build, Build, Build program through NEDA’s work in the Investment Coordination Committee.
The other marching orders include the crafting of the national recovery plan, and the acceleration of the National ID system.
“When the economy is ready… when we are allowed to continue, When it is safe to go out and work, then we will restart our Build, Build, Build program so that we can transform this economy as originally promised,” Chua said.
“We will have to use that as one of the main drivers of our economy because that is where jobs are created. That is where the multiplier effects are higher so that would be an important part of our (recovery),” he added.
The Build, Build, Build program is composed of the government’s flagship projects, seen to help boost the economy and will provide the infrastructure the country badly needs.
“However… we probably will be entering a new normal. And we will have to determine which of the Build, Build, Build projects will have the maximum impact,” Chua said.
Meanwhile, Chua said the mid-2022 target of the complete enrollment in the national ID system is still feasible.
But he noted government is thinking of ways to frontload registration this year especially since the mechanism would be helpful in the government’s distribution of social assistance programs.
“The Philippine Statistics Authority has a target of five million registrations this year, and one thing that we are thinking about is that each household gets to be registered instead. The household head will be registered, instead of everyone in the household, so we still reach five million registrations,” Chua said.
“That is one way to ensure that we can address some of the issues in the social amelioration by providing identity (to these households),” he added.
