RDC and NEDA

Function of RDC (Regional Development Council)

Item D under Sec. 4 of EO No. 325, s. 1996 (Reorganization of RDC)

Function of RDC:
"Review and endorse to the national government [Central Offices, CHED, DBM] the annual budgets of agency regional offices, state colleges and universities, and special development authorities."

8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda
(Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028)

The overall goal is to reinvigorate job creation and poverty reduction by steering the economy back to its high-growth path, and more importantly, through economic transformation for a prosperous, inclusive and resilient society.

In our continuing pursuit of AmBisyon Natin 2040 of a matatag, maginhawa at panatag na buhay para sa lahat, the government will work with all of society to realize economic transformation for a prosperous, inclusive and resilient society. The economy is targeted to grow by 6.5 to 8 percent through 2028. Unemployment rate will be reduced from about 8 percent in 2021 to a range of 4 to 5 percent in 2028. To reflect the increase in quality jobs, the percentage of wage and salaried workers in private establishments to total employed workers will increase from 48 percent in 2021 to a range of 53 to 55 percent in 2028. Poverty is targeted to decline to 9 percent of population by 2028.

1. Protect purchasing power and mitigate socioeconomic scarring

▪ Ensure Food Security. Ensure availability, affordability, accessibility of food in the country amid the looming global food shortages. Prioritize spending on productivity-enhancing measures, research and development, and efficient marketing and distribution of the produce. Rationalize subsidies and provide targeted nutritional support to pregnant women and children under three years old.

▪ Reduce Transport and Logistics Cost. Streamline regulatory processes to facilitate seamless international trade and domestic transactions, and hasten the movement of goods from ports and warehouses to wet markets and end consumers. Implement a program to bring down the cost of transporting food produce from the farm to the market.

▪ Reduce Energy Cost to Families. To conserve energy, implement alternative/ flexible work arrangements that reduce the need to travel where these have been proven to be effective and productivity-enhancing. Encourage the use of active transport and other alternative modes of transportation by improving and creating structures and regulations for safety, convenience and mobility for pedestrians and bicyclists.

2. Reduce vulnerability and mitigate scarring from the COVID-19 pandemic

▪ Tackle Health. Ramp up vaccination and uptake of boosters for the elderly and vulnerable populations. Maintain compliance with minimum public health standards to enable safe reopening of the economy and schools. Strengthen surveillance and laboratory capacity to enable the prompt identification and response to outbreaks. Resume implementation of reforms and investments enshrined in the Universal Health Act.

▪ Strengthen Social Protection. Strengthen the core functions of poverty reduction and human capital investment of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Expedite the adoption of the National ID system (PhilSys) and facilitate digital transformation of social protection systems to allow for a more efficient, targeted, and equitable delivery of social programs. Strengthen social protection delivery to be more adaptive and responsive to needs, by streamlining contingency financing mechanisms, establishing a dynamic social registry, and defining business process for national and local governments with emergency cash transfers. Rationalize the existing programs to ensure that the objectives of promotion, transformation, prevention and protection of well-being are achieved.

▪ Address Learning Losses. Quickly and safely reopen classes at all levels. Improve curriculum to focus on foundational skills, and provide tutorial and remedial classes to address learning gaps arising from the pandemic. Expand the Alternative Learning System to support dropouts. Support teachers to improve pedagogical competences, including the use of digital learning platforms, and subject knowledge. Through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), promote reskilling and upskilling programs for displaced workers and out-of-school youth. Improve school governance at all levels. Enhance and modify the Government Internship Program to provide opportunities for new graduates to gain shop, laboratory or internship experiences.

3. Ensure sound macroeconomic fundamentals

▪ Enhance Bureaucratic Efficiency and sound fiscal management. Facilitate the transformation and digitalization of government processes, records and databases, and ensure full functionality with the PhilSys. Implement a right-sizing program for the bureaucracy particularly on functions that have been devolved following the Mandanas-Garcia ruling. Implement tax administration reforms to increase revenue collection. Realign expenditure priorities and improve spending efficiency to immediately address the economic scarring arising from the effects of Covid-19 and be prepared for future shocks. Adjust taxes on non-essential and luxury goods and services. Focus government resources on health, education, infrastructure, and social protection.

▪ Ensure a resilient and innovative financial sector. Adopt regulatory frameworks and platforms for digital finance to enhance the scope, scale and reach of digital financial services. Pursue compelling use cases for digital payments, alongside expanded digital financial literacy programs, more robust consumer protection policies, and enhanced ability of microfinance institutions to provide digital financial services. Support reforms in the domestic financial market through innovative solutions such as the establishment of digital supply chain financing, credit risk database, and online collateral registry.

4. Create more jobs

▪ Promote trade and investments. Aggressively promote the country as an investment destination, capitalizing on the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprise (CREATE) Law and amended economic liberalization laws (i.e., Public Service Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, Foreign Investment Act). Reinvigorate manufacturing, including agri-food processing, for more and high-quality jobs. Utilize and fully support ecozones as an agglomeration strategy, especially to bring in strategic industries (high-tech manufacturing, health and medical care, emerging tech, among others) and promote growth outside NCR. Continue to improve government regulatory processes, in both national and local government units.

▪ Improve Infrastructure.

Continue implementation of Build, Build, Build projects that are near completion and those with firm funding commitments. Refocus Build, Build, Build towards infrastructure projects that strengthen industry linkages, expand physical and digital connectivity, improve access of the poor to basic services including water supply and sanitation, public transportation, affordable energy and flood protection infrastructure, and improve climate resilience. In recognition of the tighter fiscal space, encourage solicited PPPs. Invest in smart social and economic infrastructure. Expand equitable internet connectivity for education institutions at all levels.

▪ Achieve Energy Security. Pursue an energy transition and development program aimed at achieving a clean, reliable, cost-effective, and secure mix of energy sources. Encourage continued innovation and investment in the energy sector.

5. Create quality jobs

▪ Increase Employability. Improve the quality and relevance of education and provide opportunities for life-long learning and options to obtain micro-credentials. Enhance skills development to ensure that there is a critical mass of skilled workforce, especially for strategic industries. Improve job facilitation programs. Strengthen linkages between industry, business and training institutions for a more efficient labor market. Ensure access to social insurance and worker protection (cum labor regulation) as well as safe and productive overseas migration.

▪ Encourage R&D and Innovation. Encourage R&D and innovation especially in products and processes that promote linkages between and among agriculture, industry and services. Create and expand a research network that will enable collaboration among higher education institutions, research institutions, and local industries particularly for enhancing productivity. Encourage greater innovation in the food sector to produce higher value, but affordable products – high-nutrition, immune-boosting, even therapeutic food products that can serve the domestic and international markets. Sustain improvement of business environment, financial inclusion, competition, to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. Develop technologies that contribute to climate action, and those that mitigate and adapt to climate change impact.

▪ Enhance the Digital Economy. Implement policies that enable greater private-sector investment in the country’s internet infrastructure. Level the playing field in telecommunications and prohibit exclusivity dealings for internet services to promote competition in the sector. Facilitate digital payments, promote digital financial services, adoption of PhilSys by service providers, enable market regulations for building trust and data transfers to provide greater opportunities for individuals and MSMEs.

6. Create green jobs

▪ Purse a Green and Blue Economy. Introduce risk-based budgeting and fiscal risk monitoring; strengthen market for insurance against catastrophe; protect farmers against climate extremes by reforming agricultural insurance; and implement public asset insurance. Expand green (and blue) financing to a broader set of businesses. Introduce carbon pricing mechanisms in the medium term. Expedite the operationalization of the Green Jobs Act and its IRR by establishing the green jobs certification system and incentive schemes and developing the green work force with skills accreditation. Implement the Philippine Action Plan for Sustainable Consumption and Production.

▪ Establish Livable and Sustainable Communities. Develop sustainable livable and affordable cities and townships where residents enjoy a comfortable and secure life, resilient to climate change and disasters. Promote green public works and include a green score as part of LGU performance indicators. Given the limited resources, incentivize LGUs to focus more on climate-friendly projects in: i) electric vehicles and public transport and active transport development; (ii) sustainable tourism, (iii) nature-based solutions (coastal habitat restoration and biodiversity protection); (iv) energy efficiency (street lighting, public building retrofits, green buildings); and (v) water security.

7. Uphold public order and safety, peace and security. Develop and pursue an integrated, transparent, and human rights-based peace and security strategy to ensure that socioeconomic efforts are implemented without disruptions. Address and respond to all forms of internal (e.g., criminality, local communist armed conflict, other threats to public safety), external (e.g., threats to territorial integrity and sovereignty, transnational crimes), and non-traditional threats (e.g., cybercrime, health emergencies). Strengthen national and local institutions and empower communities to address these threats to security and public safety. Strengthen intergovernmental relations with the Bangsamoro government and ensure smooth transition towards a fully functioning autonomous government. Expedite the modernization and capability enhancement of the armed forces and other security sector agencies to uphold our sovereignty and territorial integrity, ensure the safety of the public, and protect critical assets including digital infrastructures. Strengthen international engagements and pursue diplomatic measures to advance the country’s interests and support international development objectives particularly in the areas of regional peace and stability, maritime cooperation, humanitarian response, border control and management, and transnational crime, among others.

8. Ensure a level playing field.

▪ Strengthen market competition. Enhance whole-of-government effort to implement the National Competition Policy, specifically to address abuse of dominant position, prevent anti-competitive mergers and acquisitions, andpenalize otheranti-competitive practices. Review mandates of GOCCs to ensure competitive neutrality between state-owned and private businesses. Sustain research and development efforts to identify competition-related issues in priority sectors such as telecommunications, energy, food, and agriculture.

▪ Reduce barriers to entry and limits to entrepreneurship. Expedite efforts to automate and streamline regulatory and licensing processes, and establish the Philippine Ease of Doing Business Reporting System. Issue and implement the National Policy on Regulatory Management System to improve the quality of regulations and to foster an environment that would allow enterprises of any form and size to easily and fairly participate and compete in the market. Expedite the operationalization of recently-enacted economic liberalization laws (i.e., Public Service Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, and Foreign Investment Act).