“Celebrating youth in the Philippines”, published on May 11, 2021 in his column “Business and Society” in the Manila Bulletin, CRC Director for Research Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas highlights the importance of the Philippines’ young and growing population in fueling the country’s economic recovery once the pandemic has hopefully been put under reasonable control.
“Our young and growing population is, without doubt, the main reason why we can look forward to a robust recovery of anywhere from 8 to 10 percent GDP growth, starting 2023 when we can expect the pandemic to be put under reasonable control after we are able to acquire herd immunity.”
“Our 112 million level of population by then would enable us to rely on an increasing number of Overseas Filipino Workers who would be in great demand in such sectors as health and wellness, caregiving, domestic services, travel and tourism, seafaring, education, business services, and other sectors requiring low and middle-level skills that will still proliferate in the advanced countries, despite the prevalence of Artificial Intelligence and robotization.”
“OFWs and the BPO-IT sectors will account for an increasing percentage of our GDP. Our domestic market will consist of more upper-middle income households who would drive the strongest engine growth of the Philippine economy, which is consumption.”
“A large earning population would also be a source of domestic savings that, together with increased Foreign Direct Investments, can fund the Build, Build, Build, program that will intensify over the next decade or so. We badly need these savings and FDIs because after the pandemic is put under control, we have to address the high level of debt that our Government is incurring during this crisis.”
“We will no longer be able to borrow more so that we must rely on our own savings and on the inflow of foreign capital to fund our capital-intensive investments especially in telecom, media, infrastructures and other public utilities.”
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