MANILA – The resumption of activities for the government’s priority “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) infrastructure program will help jumpstart the economy once the death rate and coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infection are under control, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
During the televised public address of President Rodrigo R. Duterte with his Cabinet Tuesday, Dominguez cited the acceleration of the infrastructure program as the best growth driver “because it has the best multiplier effects in terms of employment and shared prosperity.”
He said people supervising the infrastructure projects should ensure that minimum health standards are being practiced in the construction sites.
The government is investing about PHP1 trillion annually for its “Build, Build, Build” program as infrastructure projects are expected to have a long-term economic effect.
It aims to increase infrastructure investments from about 2.8 percent in the past to about 7 percent by 2022.
As of 2018, the share of the government’s infrastructure spending reached 5.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Aside from the BBB program, Dominguez also proposed the hiring of people who will do contact tracing to boost the government’s ability to stop transmission and defeat the virus.
He said some 1.2 million jobs are temporarily lost during the ECQ but this will partly be addressed by hiring people that will conduct contract tracing.
Passage of the proposed Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (CITIRA) before June 3, 2020, was also proposed to encourage more foreign investors who want to relocate to countries with resilient growth and high growth potential.
Dominguez also proposed the promotion of food production, food logistics, and manufacturing of items with inelastic demand to stimulate consumer demand.
He said the current problem is people lost their jobs and their means to buy things thus, the government must provide them jobs so that they would be able to finance their needs.
He said the aid being extended to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to help them recover from the impact of the pandemic would just go to waste if there is no demand for their products and services.
“So we have to stimulate demand and that’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ and push food production,” he added. (PNA)
