Infra upgrade will drive economic growth
The Duterte administration’s infrastructure program is expected to provide many benefits to the country and the economy. We enumerate some of these below.
1) Boost economic growth. The massive spending on infrastructure projects will spur economic activity. If the projects are executed properly, we see economic growth reaching eight to 10 percent in the medium to long term. These initiatives are expected to unlock bottlenecks, in-crease productivity and diversify economic growth across many industries while also stimulating growth in provinces.
2) Job creation. The construction of large-scale infra projects and the resulting economic development from the initiatives will create millions of jobs for Filipinos nationwide.
3) Improved flow of goods. Better roads, railways, air-ports and sea ports will improve the flow of commodities and products not only within the country, but also to and from the country. This will result in lower transportation costs and increased competitiveness for many industries. Thus, improved infrastructure may aid the development of many industries such as manufacturing, agriculture and mining.
4) Development of tourism. The tourism industry will immensely benefit from better airports and roads, which should lead to increased in-vestments in the sector.
5) Reduction of traffic congestion. Metro Manila is notorious for its congested cities and hour-long traffic jams. Various studies have shown that these cost billions of pesos for the economy. Better roads and improved mass transport will reduce travel times and result in higher productivity.
6) Decongestion of Metro Manila. Building green cit-ies and urban centers out-side Metro Manila will address overconcentration in the country’s capital. Such projects will decentralize and diversify economic development while also stimulating the economic expansion of other provinces.
(Excerpt from an article written by Wilson Sy for the Philstar and reposted by the Philippine Embassy, London Image from http://www.philstar.com)
