The Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 (PDP) serves as the country’s overall blueprint for development planning. PDP was approved officially by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. through an Executive Order in January 2023. The development plan aims to “bring back the country to a high-growth trajectory and, more importantly, enable economic and social transformation for a prosperous, inclusive, and resilient society.” PDP reflects the government’s policies, strategies, programs, and legislative priorities in support of and consistent with President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s Socioeconomic Agenda.
The PDP aims to reinvigorate job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the Philippine economy back to its high-growth trajectory and effect economic and social transformation for a prosperous, inclusive, and resilient society. PDP has the following socio-economic targets: Maintain an annual economic growth rate between 6.5 to 8.0 percent from 2024 to 2028; Create more, better, and more resilient jobs to bring the unemployment rate within 4 to 5 percent by 2028 and the percentage of wage and salary workers in private establishments to total employed within 53 to 55 percent; Keep overall inflation within 2 to 4 percent from 2024-2028; Reduce national government deficit to GDP ratio to 3 percent by 2028; Continue the progress of the country among the innovation achievers of the region by ranking higher and within the top 33 percent of the Global Competitiveness Index by 2028; and Reduce poverty incidence between 8 to 9 percent by 2028.
The PDP fully considers the lessons learned from the pandemic and the country’s recent economic history. First, maintaining robust macroeconomic fundamentals is key to a more rapid recovery and to preventing deep socioeconomic scars. Second, PDP realises the vitality of the economy is only as good as the country’s health and educational system. Lastly, a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach is fundamental to policy effectiveness.
The PDP identifies six cross cutting strategies for its implementation: First, the Plan lays thrust on Digitalisation and states that digital transformation of government will result in more efficient and faster service delivery, more transparency, and fewer opportunities for corruption at various levels. Second, the Plan calls for a reconfiguration of the public – private partnerships (PPP) to address cross-cutting issues of a weak competition environment and the digital divide, as well as boost the country’s campaign to attract foreign investments. Third, the government will pursue policies building ecosystems around manufacturing clusters identified as potential sources of high growth. Fourth, PDP aims to create a dynamic innovation ecosystem which will mean new products, more efficient processes, and an even bigger market share. Fifth, PDP recognises that digital and physical connectivity through infrastructure is important to link markets, connect urban centers to rural areas, and facilitate the movement of people where opportunities for employment or health care and education are better. Sixth, PDP seeks to bring local governments in as equal partners in the development agenda of the country. The Plan aims to optimize the sharing of responsibility between local and national government to raise each LGU’s capacity for delivering public services and raising local revenues.
The PDP is on target to meet the objectives. On 31 January 2024, the country’s National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) that the Philippine economy sustained its growth, expanding by 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, resulting in a GDP growth rate of 5.6 percent for the entire year. The full-year GDP for 2023 was 8.6 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels. Household spending, year-on-year, grew faster in Q4 (5.3 percent) versus the growth in Q3 (5.1 percent). There has been a robust growth in spending for restaurants and hotels (16.2 percent), transport (12.2 percent), and recreation (7.3 percent), reflecting the improvements in the labour market and steady growth in remittances. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has mentioned that the 4.5% unemployment rate in January 2024 falls within the target of PDP.
