PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. has vowed to include the top three priority agenda of employers in the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan (PDP).
In his speech at the first day of the 43rd National Conference of Employers (NCE) on Wednesday, which was read by Labor and Employment Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma, Marcos took note of the private sector’s demands, as he considers them a crucial government partner for economic development.
“The three major sets of issues in your agenda are therefore included not only in DOLE’s (Department of Labor and Employment) priorities, but in the development priorities of the government as a whole,” Marcos said in his speech addressed to the NCR participants.
Foremost on the agenda from business groups is for the government to come out with “reasonable regulations” for alternative work arrangements, the effective use of the wage fixing mechanism and promotion of productivity.
They are also pushing to upskill workers for the demands of the 21st century workplace through “responsive training courses and certification standards,” and improving the labor market and employment facilitation networks as well as to set up help desks to support start up businesses and their workers.
Marcos said he hopes the NCE, which was organized by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop), will help the private sector come out with “doable solutions,” which can be included in the new PDP and DOLE’s National Labor and Employment Plan.
“The government will consider integrating appropriate responses and measures to these issues in the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan that the National Economic and Development Authority headed by Secretary Arsenio Balisacan is presently formulating,” Marcos said.
Aside from employers, he said the government will also consider the position of the labor groups in crafting the said plan.
The new PDP, he said, will help provide the “enabling environment” to help employers rapidly generate more jobs, which are “decent, productive, remunerative, green and freely chosen.”
“As a modern market economy, we count on the private sector, especially on employers and business organizations like Ecop to create and generate jobs. For its part, the government is fully committed to establish the policy environment to enable the private sector to do so,” Marcos said.
Image credits: Robinson Niñal/Office of the Press Secretary