Curb poverty to spur economic growth: ADB
MANILA, Philippines - A more coordinated response to poverty will help the Philippines attain higher levels of sustained growth and bolster the country's overall development, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Thursday.
In a statement, the multilateral lender called on the government to institute reforms, investments, and long-term strategies to free the Philippines from persistent poverty, which is constraining the country's economic and social development.
Specifically, the ADB said the government should prioritize projects that promote social protection, infrastructure investments, efficient population management, and job creation, among others.
"Chronic poverty jeopardizes the Philippines' chances of achieving high levels of economic growth needed to improve the wellbeing of all the country's people," said Camilla Holmemo, a poverty reduction specialist in ADB's southeast Asia department.
"Poverty reduction will not only benefit the poor themselves but society as a whole. It is in everyone's interest to make poverty reduction a priority," she added.
Citing a study, ADB said the Philippines' poverty reduction rate of 0.47% per year is slower than those of neighboring Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Among Southeast Asian nations, the multilateral lender said only the Philippines has recorded an increase in the absolute number of poor people since 1990.
Taking into account the effects of the global economic crisis, external price shocks, and recent typhoons, the ADB said poverty rates may have worsened in the past months.
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Growth
Corruption of course is a big factor, but Vietnam and Indonesia still have notoriously high levels of corruption but are still hitting high levels of growth. Why? Because they seem to make a more serious effort and priority on economic growth.
ADB notes: "Specifically, the ADB said the government should prioritize projects that promote social protection, infrastructure investments, efficient population management, and job creation, among others."
The RP lags or fails on most of these points. Infrastructure spending is far less than its neighbors. As one of my colleagues pointed out, it seems to take the RP so much longer to put in a highway or finish a housing project in comparison to China (someone who has visited both countries extensively). China literally puts in a highway or subway line in a matter of months. RP takes years.
Efficient population management: Absolute utter failure. Almost every East Asian country has birth control policies. Against practically every expert on development and growth, there are still morons in the RP who think birth control is not a government issue. When it eats up the nation's GDP growth and effects everyone, then obviously it should be a government priority. Amazing the backwards stupidity on this issue in the Philippines.
Job creation is obvious as well. But apparently, the policy makers think sending people abroad to be maids and servants is a serious long term job policy.
Poverty
It will not be eliminated as long as there are politicians taking advantage of the poor to advance their personal interests. It's a status quo, you keep them being poor, provide hand outs and they'll forever grateful to you and their votes are yours come election. It's really sad but it happens although some are starting to realize that they can do something to change for the better. Corruption is the source of all evils and we should stop this once and for all.