NEDA: Education key to taking advantage of young population

By Julito G. Rada

NATIONAL Economic and Development

Authority Undersecretary Rosemarie

Edillon underscored the need to invest in lifelong learning, job creation and increasing employability to maximize the country’s demographic dividend and achieve the goals of the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.

“We have outlined various plans, programs, and policies in the PDP that will ensure that all Filipinos have access to social services, opportunities to improve their employability and social protection,” Edillon said during a high-level meeting for this year’s World Population Day on July 11..

Edillon said it is important to align national and local development plans with the ongoing demographic transition. She said this framework was cascaded to the regional level, and it was crucial to address the various challenges arising from the demographic transition at the municipal and city levels.

NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, in his keynote address read by Edillon, said the government places great importance on eradicating poverty, promoting lifelong learning and transformative education, providing accessible healthcare, ensuring gender equality and fostering sustainable economic growth.

The United Nations Population Fund released the State of the World Population report to commemorate the milestone of the global population surpassing the 8-billion mark.

“As the world’s population surpasses 8 billion, it is essential that we take on the complexities of our changing reality and approach these concerns with depth, empathy, and evidencebased solutions,” Balisacan said in his statement.

AMORTIZATION

WRITE-OFF. Land Bank of the Philippines ensures that it will work closely with government partners for the seamless and immediate implementation of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act. The government is writing-off land amortizations managed by LandBank amounting to P57.74 billion as of 30 June 2023, effectively relieving over 649,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries tilling 1.17 million hectares of land debt. Joining President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (center) after the signing of the law on July 7, 2023 are Agrarian Reform Secretary and LandBank board member Conrado Estrella III (eighth from right) and other DAR officials, together with LandBank president and chief executive Lynette Ortiz (thir from right), executive vice president Alex Lorayes (fourth from right) and vice president Marife Lynn Pascua (second from right).