UPOU steps up pitch for competitiveness agenda

 

	Ambassador Stephen Lillie addresses the participants of the Policy Forum.
	UPOU Chancellor Grace J. Alfonso delivers welcome address.
	Dean Ma. Fe V. Mendoza briefs the participants on the goals and objectives of the policy forum/workshop.
	The speakers and participants of the policy forum/workshop.

 

The pitch for a competitiveness legislative agenda intensified as the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) convened more than 80 policy experts from the executive and legislative branches of the government, academe, and business in a consultative forum and workshop on Advocating Policy and Legislative Agenda to Improve Philippine Competitiveness for the 15th Congress held on 21-22 January 2009 at One Tagaytay Place, Tagaytay City.

Among the experts who presented talks and lectures at the forum were Deputy Director-General Rolando Tungpalan of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Director Dennis Arroyo of NEDA, Napoleon Micu of the Department of Finance (DoF), Manuel Cruz of the Board of Investments (BOI), Secretary General Crisanto Frianeza and Deputy Secretary General Ryan Patrick Evangelista of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Dr. Raul Fabella of the UP School of Economics, Prof. Leonor Briones of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance(NCPAG) and Social Watch, and Supachol Suphachalasai of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The forum and workshop fleshed out a number of legislative reforms. Among these are

• Simplified net income taxation (SNITS),
• Rationalization of fiscal incentives,
• Restructuring excise taxes on sin products,
• Fiscal responsibility bill,
• Creation of the Department of Information and Communication,
• Amendment to the Consumer Act of the Philippines,
• Competition law,
• Amendments to safeguard measures,
• Amendments to the build-operate-transfer (BOT) law,
• Rationalization of National Food Authority,
• Customs and tariff modernization act, and
• Anti-smuggling bill.

The identified legislative measures are set to be presented to politicians and policymakers for possible inclusion in their platform or program of action in March.

Meanwhile, the British Embassy, the project benefactor, reiterated that the need for economic reforms does not end with the current Congressional session.

“The transition from one administration to the next should not lead to loss of momentum in terms of economic and social reforms. That is why this project (Improving Philippine competitiveness through policy advocacy of economic reform and strategies) is intended to provide continuing consultations on needed reforms,” British Ambassador to Manila Stephen Lillie said.

UPOU Chancellor Grace Javier Alfonso, on the other hand, opined that if the continuing consultations on needed reforms (setting up of the legislative agenda) will be just like “a usual piece of material (legislative agenda) which the Congresses of the past have worked on, then the advocacy work will be an easy job to do. If the agenda is strongly alternative or there are many new areas of concerns being addressed in new ways, (then) there is cause for celebration because we celebrate cutting edge ideas and mainstreaming the alternative. However, there will be more work to do for the advocates.”
The forum and workshop is part of the project on “Improving Philippine competitiveness through policy advocacy of economic reform and strategies,” which the UPOU Faculty of Management and Development Studies, headed by its Dean, Dr. Maria Fe Mendoza, is orchestrating. (Faculty of Management and Development Studies)

 

 

Date posted: 2 February 2010