The Duterte administration will be able to create an average of 1.6 million jobs every year between 2017 and 2022, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
This is based on the Neda’s projection of the impact of the current administration’s infrastructure spending, which could increase the annual average additional gross value added (GVA) to GDP to 3.4 percent.
“[This is based on the assumption that] public infrastructure spending baseline of 5.1 percent of GDP this year [and] gradual increase of public infrastructure spending to 7.4 percent of GDP by 2022,” Ernesto M. Pernia said. “It would create about 1.7 million jobs by 2022.”
The Neda estimates that the government’s public infrastructure spending will create 106,824 jobs in 2017; some 823,696 jobs in 2018; around 1.12 million in 2019; 1.23 million in 2020; 1.399 million in 2021; and 1.705 million by 2022.
Data showed that additional GVA will be 0.3 percent in 2017; around 2.6 percent in 2018; some 3.5 percent in 2019; another 3.9 percent in 2020; an addition of 4.4 percent in 2021; and 5.4 percent by 2022. These estimates have also taken into consideration the national government’s plan to spend P3.608 billion for ongoing and new infrastructure projects between 2018 and 2020 under the Three-year Rolling Infrastructure Program (Trip).
Pernia said the government will spend P1.134 billion in 2018; another P1.183 billion in 2019; plus another P1.292 billion in 2020.
“This [Trip] is a joint project with the Department of Budget and Management, and it will ensure budget support for projects that are in the pipeline. It will also assure that once an infrastructure program has been planned and rolled out, it will continue to receive funding from the government,” Pernia earlier said.
The bulk of the allocation will be for transportation worth P2.33 billion or 64.57 percent of the total. The government will spend P627.37 billion in 2018; P764.56 billion in 2019; and P937.84 billion in 2020.
The sector which accounts for the second largest value of projects to be undertaken under the 2018 to 2020 Trip is the social infrastructure worth P636.65 billion, which accounts for 17.65 percent of the total.
Around P255.29 billion of these projects will be financed in 2018, and another P204.27 billion in 2019. In 2020 around P177.09 billion will be funded.
The projects for 2018 are divided according to Tier 1 and Tier 2 projects. Tier 1 projects are those that need to have continuous funding in the next three years, while Tier 2 are the “new” projects.
Initially the Trip includes transportation facilities, such as roads and railways; water projects such as irrigation and water supply; energy projects; and social infrastructure such as classrooms and health facilities.
These will be part of the Duterte administration’s target to spend a total of P8.2 trillion between 2017 and 2022 to usher in what Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno terms as the “golden age of infrastructure” in the country.