NEDA STEERS DIALOGUE FOR REGIONAL, NATIONAL ALIGNMENT OF PRIORITY INVESTMENT PROGRAMS
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) underscored the importance of ensuring that regional priorities are included in the Public Investment Program (PIP).
In his keynote address, NEDA Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan, expressed awareness of the seeming disconnect between the PIP, which contains the priority programs, activities, and projects (PAPs) by national government agencies, and the Regional Development Investment Program (RDIP), which captures the priority PAPs of the regions.
The statement was read by NEDA Undersecretary Carlos Bernardo Abad Santos during the Regional-National Investment Programming (RNIP) Dialogue held on August 17-18, 2023.
“With today’s dialogue, we aim to strengthen the linkage between the PIP and the RDIP through our Agency Central Offices and Regional Development Councils (RDC) by harmonizing sectoral priorities with regional priorities and with the regional and national investment programming timelines,” Balisacan said in his statement.
“Increasing the region’s share in the national budget in support of the priorities and strategies outlined in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 remains among our targets and end-goals for this dialogue today,” he added.
Balisacan also emphasized the importance of RDCs properly vetting and selecting their proposed projects so that Agency Central Offices can zero-in on key regional projects. Regional line agencies or RLAs, in turn, shall exercise their critical roles of ensuring the readiness of these key projects for implementation.
The dialogue covered twelve pilot national government agencies with the highest region-specific investment targets based on the formulated PIP 2023-2028.
The agencies present on the first day were the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Energy, Department of Science and Technology, and Department of Transportation.
On the second day of the dialogue, agencies presented their Agency Regional-National Investment Programs and Projects, while the RDCs gave feedback and raised queries during the dialogue.
The regional projects are expected to be submitted by the agencies when NEDA opens the PIPOL System in September.
Greater collaboration between the national and local levels of government – in support of more efficient, effective, and sustainable delivery of public services – is one of the cross-cutting strategies of the PDP and a priority of the Marcos Administration to share equitably the fruits of the economy’s rapid expansion to all regions.
The first-ever RNIP dialogue was organized by the NEDA Public Investment Staff in coordination with the Regional Development Staff.
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