Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Monday offered an unsolicited advice to the next government on efforts to help the economy recover from the pandemic.
“We need to continue the momentum of growth that we started. We’re really relieved that we’re able to reopen and recover at the last stretch of the Duterte administration,” Lopez said.
He said it would be easy for the incoming government to attain more than 7-percent growth this year, given the solid foundation built over years of creating a resilient economy.
“It is highly likely that the new administration may surpass the 6 to 7 percent growth expectation this year, on hopes that the Russia-Ukraine war will not aggravate” Lopez said.
He said the continuity of ongoing reforms is crucial to revive businesses and give reason for start-ups and new ventures to develop.
Policies in economic reforms should take precedence at this point in time to “attract more foreign direct investments and support more modern and advance production systems in agriculture and industries,” he said.
The DTI also pushed policies and programs in research and development, ecommerce and digitalization of government transactions.
The DTI plans to submit a list of priority policies to the transition team of the next administration within the next couple of days.
Among the priority policies is the drafting and finalization of the Strategic Investment Priorities Plan, the Buy Local Policy for specific government procurement and the creation of an intelligence fund to strengthen campaign against smugglers, profiteers, hoarders and e-commerce.
Lopez said he is willing to assist the incoming DTI secretary for the smooth transition.
