MANILA – Pushing for digital transformation will catapult the country’s growth amid the pandemic, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said Tuesday.
In an online media briefing, Edillon said the government aims to put in place digital infrastructure to make the economy resilient during this global health crisis.
“With our push for digital infrastructure, this will really catapult us,” she said in mixed English and Filipino. “We are really confident that this (is) really a good thing for us because of this push for greater digitalization.”
She said digital transformation is one of the priorities of the Task Group on Recovery, along with health system improvement, food security, learning continuity, and ecological integrity towards having a healthy and resilient Philippines.
She added that even the updated Philippine Development Plan (PDP) focused its strategies on health and risk reduction and management and at the same time resiliency measures mainly digital transformation.
While putting in place digital infrastructure, Edillon said there is a need to retool and reskill the labor force towards digital skills.
“So making our governance strategies more resilient, again by having more of this digital business-to-government, citizens-to-government transactions; having our agriculture being more tech savvy; our learning continuity strategies actually focus also on digital technologies,” Edillon said.
Meanwhile, the NEDA official expects better gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the third quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter.
“We are hoping that it will be better than the second quarter but we don’t think it will be a positive on a year-on-year,” she said, adding the improvement in the Labor Force Survey for July.
However, Edillon cited economic headwinds such as the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, which is still below the 50-mark, the negative consumer and business outlook for the third quarter, and the modified enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and four other provinces in August. (PNA)
