Ranking officials of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) are hopeful that presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte will support the AmBisyon Natin 2040 initiative.
The Ambisyon Nation 2040 is a long term development initiative started by NEDA in early 2015 as “an exercise for long term visioning” and to serve as a guide for the country as a whole, “looking at what development directions we would like to pursue” in the next 25 years, explained Director Efren Carreon, concurrent NEDA regional director for the Negros Island Region (NIR) and the Central Visayas region.
Director Carreon further explained that the project was implemented even before the new administration and “we are hoping that there would be some sort of continuity of the desired development that we want to have in the future”.
AmBisyon 2040 is designed to serve as a development planning guide across administrations, and will cover at least four presidents, Carreon added.
“It is critical how each new administration will continue with the interventions that will be decided to be implemented in the coming years”, according to Carreon.
Director Carreon stressed that NEDA is engaging the different stakeholders, the youth sector, academe, business, the local governments, the civil society organizations, non-government organizations and others in this exercise “because we strongly believe that participatory planning, and consultative exercise on development is very critical in achieving wholehearted support so we can implement what we desire”.
For her part, Director IV Nerrisa Esguerra of the Development Information Staff, NEDA Central Office, disclosed that they plan to present the AmBisyon Nation 2040 to President-elect Duterte soon.
She further that even presidential candidates were already briefed on the project.
But, Esguerra clarified that NEDA would concentrate first on the visios of the Filipino people who play an important role in this initiative.
“What we are trying to address here is the long-term trajectory that we follow” in the coming years, Esguerra explained, adding that the development process is a “long-term process and spans decades”.
As an example, she cited Malaysia which took 33 years to reach its current development status.
“We start by asking what people aspire for what standard of living they would want in 25 years”, Esguerra said.
According to her, this is the first that an initiative is being implemented with the people being asked to play a participatory role.
Usually it is just government that comes up with medium term development plans, Esguerra noted.
The NEDA officials were in Dumaguete to present the AmBisyon Nation 2040 survey results in a forum held in collaboration with Silliman University.
Some of the goals or desires presented included having savings, a house, a car, mass mobility, among others, she said.
Government has not reached yet the stage on how to address these goals and alongside it comes the task of looking at thematic areas such as infrastructure, urban development and health, to name a few, Esguerra stressed.
She went on to say that government also needs to look at the problems that might “hamper the people to achieve their personal aspirations” under the AmBisyon 2040 initiative.
Governor Roel Degamo, Board Member Arnie Teves, other local officials, Ed Du of the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry, CSOs and NGOs, the youth, the academe and other sectors were present during the forum. (PNA)
