Neda: Jobs quality, not just numbers, crucial B C U. O @caiordinario
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HILE there has been an improvement in the employment situation in the country based on the latest data, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said more needs to be done to improve the quality of jobs in the Philippines to reduce poverty. In a Post-Sona Briefing on Wednesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the unemployment number has declined to 4.3 percent, the kind of jobless rate found in developed countries. However, Balisacan recognized that attaining a low jobless rate is different from creating decent jobs. These jobs, he said, would allow the
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Philippines to bring down the poverty rate to 9 percent by 2028. “The number of jobs is one thing but the quality of those jobs is another,” Balisacan said. “That’s [what] my colleagues here are [working on]—improving the quality of jobs available, improving the employability of our workers, enhancing the human capital of our people so that the labor market can work effectively, efficiently.” Balisacan said by improving the work force, the government can also attract investments that will allow the establishment of factories and new age businesses— those into Artificial Intelligence— that will ensure the sustainability of the growth of the economy not only today but in the years to come. By building factories and plants that create new equipment as well
as investments in roads and bridges, more businesses will come to the Philippines and provide quality jobs to Filipinos. “We are in a hurry because as we keep on saying, many of our neighbors have left us long ago but now we have the opportunity. As we kept saying the stars are aligned. And if we miss this time, I don’t know when we’re going [to achieve it],” Balisacan said.
No reason to celebrate
OXFORD Economics in its latest brief said the low unemployment numbers in the Philippines and Thailand is not enough reason to celebrate. Employment opportunities in the Philippines remain informal, with own-account workers and unpaid workers increasing to 38 per-
cent in the first quarter of this year from 34 percent in the first quarter of 2019. Oxford Economics added that the number of unpaid workers in the Philippines doubled within the same period, standing at 8.1 percent of total employed persons in the first quarter of this year. These own-account and unpaid workers are unstable sources of income and would usually have irregular hours. Some examples of these jobs are hawkers, private hire car drivers, real estate agents, to start-up owners. “Thailand and the Philippines, unlike their subregional peers, have registered higher employment growth than their prepandemic trends. But we think this S “N,” A
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Thursday, July 27, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 283
P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK
READY FOR ‘EGAY’ These combination photos capture the preparations made by fisherfolk on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, as Typhoon Egay approached the northern part of Luzon. In both the Navotas Fish Port in Manila and Rosario, Cavite, as well as various locations across the region, they diligently secured their boats in anticipation of the impending storm. Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal Number Four was raised for the northwestern portion of Cagayan, including Babuyan Islands and the northern portion of Ilocos Norte, heightening the alertness of the communities in the affected areas. Story in A5 News. NONIE REYES/ROY DOMINGO
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B S P. M
@sam_medenilla
HE Philippines and Malaysia are set to conduct a Joint Commission Meeting later this year for the signing of several agreements on cooperation on transnational crimes, halal industry and Islamic banking among others.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim made the announcement at their joint press briefing Wednesday afternoon, the second day of Marcos’s visit to the Asean neighbor. “In the spirit of exploring synergies for future partnerships, we agreed to convene the next Philippines-Malaysia Joint Commission Meeting in the near future. I believe the date that we decided upon was around sometime in October,” Marcos said. The agreements will cover areas of transnational crime, agriculture, halal industry, Islamic banking, education, tourism and culture, sports, and the digital economy. “We continue to work on the corresponding MOUs [memorandum of understanding] in these
fields and have them signed—we’ll have them signed in the near future,” Marcos said. He also said they are coordinating with Malaysia for the building of capacity of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), especially for the Halal industry and Islamic banking. “Malaysia has warmly offered their expertise to train Philippine personnel and officials to strengthen our capabilities in these increasingly important sectors,” the chief executive said.
Flexible engagement
FOR his part, Ibrahim said he and the President discussed “strengthening” of the five-point consensus of the Association of Southeast S “E,” A
POWER INDUSTRY MUST PUT UP OVER 8K MW OF NEW POWER B L L @llectura
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HE power industry under the Marcos administration must put up more than 8,000 megawatts (MW) of additional power generation capacity to be able to serve the projected peak demand of about 25,000 megawatts (MW) by 2028. Of the needed additional capacity, at least 43 percent of the 8,000MW must be renewable energy (RE). “By 2028, the peak demand in the Philippines will be around 25,000 MW up from our current 17,000 MW peak demand. To be able to meet that demand, we will have to make available more than 8,000 MW of new capacity. Under the vision of the President, 43 percent of that should at least be renewable energy,” said Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael Lotilla. The RE can also include battery energy storage system (BESS), which can store excess energy during periods of low demand and release it back into the grid when demand increases. “That’s pure RE at this stage, but we’re looking precisely at combina-
tions of RE and batteries where the battery storage with source from RE will also be considered as RE,” added Lotilla. The 57 percent will come from a mix of natural gas and coal. “Remember, our coal-fired power plants, many of them are young. While some are old, many of them are young and therefore there’s still useful life ahead of them,” said Lotilla. The possibility of utilizing ammonia as a fuel for co-firing in coal plants is also being considered. “You have some other sources that may come into line by 2028. Developments in technology are moving fast and I hope they move faster. “There are now proposals, for example, converting the old coal-fired power plants into, not just co-firing with ammonia...But these are still being discussed. Our new technologies in the US, they can use coal-fired facilities to produce graphene and then with hydrogen as a by-product. Let’s hope that these mature in time,” added Lotilla. To meet the forecasted demand, there must be new investments in S “P,” A
Salceda targets early approval of tax bills
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HE House Committee on Ways and Means on Wednesday said it will try to approve all of President Marcos’s tax-related priorities “next week so that the House can send them to the Senate before we begin budget hearings.” Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said his committee will tackle and try to approve a mining committee report next week. “That’s the last item on our list of priorities from the Sona. Hopefully, by end of August, the House has approved all the fiscal-related Sona priorities, including the military and uniformed personnel pension reform,” Salceda said. “Definitely, we will try to complete the reforms before the budget hearings begin,” Salceda added. The tax measures Marcos requested from Congress are the tax on single-use plastics, the VAT on digital services, the mining fiscal regime, the motor vehicle user’s charge updating, and the Ease of Paying Taxes Act. Marcos also requested Congress to enact a reform of the military and uniformed personnel pension system to ensure its sustainability. “The committee is done with
MVRUT. All the others are approved on third reading, except mining, which will be taken up in the coming days,” Salceda added. Salceda also says they expect the Ease of Paying Taxes to be approved by the Senate this August. Salceda said these reforms “are crucial to ensuring that President Marcos has the fiscal space he needs to make his vision happen.” A strong tax system, exemplified by tax effort or tax-to-GDP, is the foundation of a strong state capable of delivering public goods and services, he said. “So, we want to enact all these tax reforms, because while revenue has been growing, the economy is growing much faster, so we are seeing warning signs of declining tax effort. Currently, as of the first semester, we are looking at tax effort of 12.8 percent. Last year it was 14.6 percent. So, we need to catch up,” he said. “It’s possibly a sign that the economy is moving towards things we are currently not taxing or are under taxing. Definitely, car sales are up 28.1 percent—and we have S “S,” A
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