President Duterte's Proposed 0 to 10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda

President Rodrigo Duterte and his economic managers presented the administration’s economic agenda dubbed as “DuterteNomics” at the recently-concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Cambodia, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia underscored the importance of peace and order in order for the economy to thrive.

“It’s not a 10-point agenda. To remember this, it’s a zero to 10-point agenda, socio-economic agenda and the zero is precisely peace and order,” Pernia said.

“Fighting criminality, fighting corruption, fighting smuggling and peace and order. And that’s because zero is the origin of the 1 to 10 points socio-economic agenda. It’s the bedrock that has to be addressed and this is what the President had been harping on during the campaign as well as now,” he added.

“President Duterte is addressing that main bedrock of the 10-point economic agenda so that the [agenda] can materialize. Without this bedrock, then it will be difficult for the economy to thrive and flourish and for the country to prosper,” according to Pernia, also director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority. Here’s the 10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda:

1. Continue and maintain current macroeconomic policies, including fiscal, monetary and trade policies.

2. Institute progressive tax reform and more effective tax collection, indexing taxes to inflation.

3. Increase competitiveness and the ease of doing business. This effort will draw upon successful models used to attract business to local cities.

4. Accelerate annual infrastructure spending to account for 5 percent of GDP, with Public-Private Partnerships playing a key role.

5. Promote rural and value chain development toward increasing agricultural and rural enterprise productivity and rural tourism.

6. Ensure security of land tenure to encourage investments and address bottlenecks in land management and titling agencies.

7. Invest in human capital development, including health and education systems, and match skills and training to meet the demand of businesses and the private sector.

8. Promote science, technology and the creative arts to enhance innovation and creative capacity toward self-sustaining, inclusive development.

9. Improve social protection programs, including the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer program, to protect the poor against instability and economic shocks.

10. Strengthen implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law to enable especially poor couples to make informed choices on financial and family planning.