MANILA, Philippines—The government plans to spend right away part of its P1.645 trillion ($37.5 billion) budget for 2011 and start building schools, irrigation systems and roads to boost growth, the budget secretary said Tuesday.
A day after President Aquino signed the budget into law, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said work on priority projects of the Education, Public Works, Transportation and Communications, Health, Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, and Social Welfare and Development departments would start as soon as possible.
“The idea is to accelerate program implementation so that we can take advantage of the first semester, where normally the weather is more conducive to construction,” Abad told Reuters.
“Those are critical agencies, which constitute 46 percent of total capital outlay of government.”
The approval of the budget before the year it covers has started marks a contrast to the experience of the previous administration.
Under the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the budget’s approval was almost always delayed. Also, there had been two instances when the budget during her term was not approved, prompting the government to spend based on the previous year’s budget.
To ease pressure on its budget deficit and lift the economy’s long-term growth rate, the government plans to form public-private partnerships to help fund infrastructure projects, including airports and power supply.
The budget assumes economic growth of 5 percent in 2011, although the government has said it wants 7 to 8 percent.
The government expects the budget deficit to narrow down to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product next year from an estimated 3.9 percent in 2010.
The government has said it may return to the foreign bond market in the first quarter of 2011 with a global peso bond issue as it studies more debt swaps to reduce its foreign exchange risk and stretch its maturity profile.—Reuters
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Reaction:
President Aquino's budget plan being put early in action, I think, is a very good improvement for the country. With this plan, there is a chance to decrease the unemployment rate, and improve the standard of living for each Filipino in the country. While I wouldn't agree with the comparison about GMA's administration, because this is only his first year, it is indeed nice to know that they have prepared early plans for the upcoming year. Hopefully, their plans for improvement of the nation will go as planned, or will reach better results and will indeed improve the country's economic growth, because as a country, we really need it. I'm just a bit worried, that with the budget spending on so early, there might be a need to increase taxes later on this year because of lack of money (Graft and Corruption might even be the main cause of it). What then would its effects be on the country? Would they then increase taxes that would affect the firms' income? I am pretty sure that if this does happen, a lot of firms would be complaining about President Aquino's term, afterall, we all want to earn a lot. Also, because these projects might decrease unemployment, there would definitely be an increase in the inflation rate... would this affect the economy badly? I am hoping that even though there is indeed inflation, the people, especially the masses will be able to cope, afterall, we need to increase our standard of living.
All in all, I think President Aquino's efforts before the year ends is appreciated, hoped for even, however as we should all remember, the efforts of one person will be wasted if the whole nation doesn't act for it. So I hope that while our president and his administration are working hard to improve the country, we (the nation and its people) will be right there beside him, working hand in hand, for the over-all benefit of our nation
AWESOME!
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