Duterte’s economic managers present Dutertenomics in China

All the President’s Men at the Great Hall of the People in China. 15 May 2017

Beijing, China – President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers have revealed to local and foreign groups the Philippine’s economic and social development blueprint called “Dutertenomics” on the side lines of the Belt and Road Forum during a visit to Beijing, China from May 14-15.

The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, hosted by President Xi Jinping, aimed to connect Asia, Europe and Africa and to discuss ways to address of global and regional economy primarily through infrastructure projects to be funded by China.

The Philippines stands to largely benefit from joining the Belt and Road Initiative as it complements with the massive trillion-peso infrastructure program that would usher in the country’s “Golden Age of Infrastructure” in the next five years.

During the forum, Budget Sec. Benjamin Diokno, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, NEDA Secretary Ernesto Pernia, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez , DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade, DPWH Secretary Mark Villar, BCDA President Vince Dizon, DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III, PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar and Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, presented their respective strategies in pursuing the President’s economic policies as well as introduced the Administration’s infrastructure plan, dubbed as “Build Build Build”, which will see the government spending billions of pesos on transportation infrastructure and

On his part, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno discussed the Government’s fiscal strategy to realize the Administration’s infrastructure plans. “In order to fund our projects, whether through borrowings or by paying as you go, we have to raise an additional 7 billion dollars of taxes every year,” Sec. Diokno said.

“This will improve our revenue efforts from under 16% in 2015 to nearly 28% by 2022,” he added.

He also said 8.4 trillion pesos would be spent on infrastructure during the Duterte administration thereby increasing the share of infrastructure spending in the country’s GDP from 5.4% in 2017 to 7.4% in 2022.

The Cabinet members also witnessed the exchange of documents which aim to promote awareness on the various China-Philippines projects.