MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino government said Wednesday it aimed to sustain economic growth of up to 8% annually as investor confidence grows and the effects of reforms kick in.

Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga told reporters that streamlined business procedures and more transparent investment measures would help bring in the money needed to speed up growth.

"We will work on what we need to do in order to obtain a growth rate... somewhere around 7% to 8% by 2011," Paderanga said.

He said that President Benigno Aquino's government, which took office on June 30, aimed to make structural changes to the economy to ensure growth is sustained.

But he warned that overseas developments, such as the still-shaky recovery of crisis-hit countries, could bring down Philippine growth rates.

The government also hopes to tap the renewed interest in the Philippines from investors and multilateral agencies seen since Aquino took office on June 30 vowing to fight endemic corruption.

"We are hoping that with the new administration, we can get more credibility so that domestic and also foreign investors will start looking at our country," Paderanga said.

The Aquino government's targets include large infrastructure investments in areas such as power, transport, water and irrigation, according to Paderanga.

Government agencies are also studying how to streamline their procedures to make it easier to do business in the Philippines, he added.

Paderanga said the Philippines had a window of opportunity to rapidly increase growth, pointing out that savings and investment rates were rising thanks to stable inflation and interest rates.

Paderanga said the initial effects of reforms would be seen in six months.

"We will try to go for things that are easy victories at first," he said.

But, even though the economy grew by 7.3% in the first quarter, the government is sticking to its target of 5% to 6% growth for 2010, said Paderanga. The economy expanded by 1.1% last year.