Ms. Irenea B. Ubungen, chief of the Development Research Division (DRD) of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region 1 who delivered the Statement on the Performance of the Region 1 Economy in 2017 in behalf of NEDA Regional Director Nestor G. Rillon, emphasized that the regional economy remains in good shape despite a decelerated growth in 2017. She pointed out the usual trend for a post-election year to witness a decline in the economic growth due to the transition of government, and adoption of a “wait-and-see” attitude among investors. The Region 1 economy posted a decline of 2.7 percentage points from 8.5 percent in 2016 to 5.8 percent in 2017 which falls just below the Ilocos Regional Development Plan (RDP) target of 5.9-7.0 percent for 2017.
The Service sector remains to be the main driver of growth in the region’s economy as it accounted for 3.5 percentage points of the growth print followed by the Industry sector with 1.8 percentage points and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery sector with 0.5 percentage point.
In terms of percent share to the region’s economic output, the Service sector continued to expand from 51.4 percent share in 2016 to 51.9 percent share in 2017 amid a slower growth of 6.8 percent. Among its sub-sectors, only Public Administration and Defense, and Compulsory Social Security grew faster with 6.8 percent in 2017 which can be attributed to government’s efforts toward human capital development to fight poverty and reduce inequality such as increasing the Pantawid Pamilya Program beneficiaries and establishing social protection floor.
Meanwhile, the Industry sector contributed 28.7 percent to the region’s output as it grew by 6.5 percent with all its sub-sector recording positive growth in 2017 but not enough to maintain the sector’s double digit growth of 16.9 percent in 2016. This was due to the slowdown in the performance of the Construction sub-sector (from 41.3 percent in 2016 to 11.8 percent in 2017) which accounted for 41.8 percent of the total industry sector. This decelerated growth follows the trend at the national level and may be attributed to transition of government. The Manufacturing sub-sector served as the growth anchor of the sector which grew from 2.7 percent in 2016 to 5.3 percent in 2017. The recovery of the manufacturing sub-sector could be explained by the higher agricultural produce of the region which is used for food processing.
The Agriculture sector recorded a rebound of 2.4 percent in 2017 from a contraction of 1.7 percent in 2016. Agriculture and Forestry, and Fishing both posted positive growths of 2.3 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. The sector’s turn around was attributed to higher production level, specifically for palay and corn, due to favorable weather conditions and lesser typhoons that directly hit the region during the year.
Ubungen underscored that strategies laid out in the Ilocos RDP for 2017-2022 would pave the way for more programs and projects this year. With the momentum of the Build Build Build Program, the region is set to benefit from the higher infrastructure spending. This will improve regional connectivity contributing in the booming tourism industry in the region, as well as provide more investment opportunities, jobs and dependable delivery of public services. She quipped that with the right policies and programs, and with the commitment to have a clean, efficient and service-oriented government, the region will continue to have a stronger economic performance as it endeavors to achieve its vision to be an “agribusiness and tourism hub Northern Philippines by 2022”. (Ma Cristina G. Cariño)
Leave a Reply