Economic agenda for the economic team

There are a number of good business and economic news recently.

- Bienvenido S. Oplas Jr.

From The Philippine STAR, "Marcos backs ASEAN non-retaliatory stand on tariffs" (May 27), "Budget surplus at P67 billion in April" (May 28).

From BusinessWorld, "GOCC dividends seen topping 2024 collections" (May 21), "Bataan-Cavite Interlink bridge construction expected soon" (May 26), "PHL-Canada to conduct exploratory talks for a bilateral FTA in June" (May 26), "Air passenger volume up 10.9 percent in 1st quarter" (May 27), "PHL eyes more investments from UAE sovereign wealth funds" (May 28).

From those reports and related stories I put forward these 10 proposals, some old and some new.

Secretary Frederick Go has also articulated some of these proposals during his keynote speech at the BusinessWorld Economic Forum last week May 22 held at Grand Hyatt BGC. I like the opening remarks by Mr. Miguel Belmonte, president and CEO of The STAR and BusinessWorld where he mentioned that "the private sector drives momentum and serves as primary engine of economic growth, job creation and innovation in the country."

One, move toward more free trade agreement (FTA) or Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with more countries outside ASEAN. The Philippines-United Arab Emirates (UAE) CEPA is expected to be signed next month. It will be the Philippines' first FTA with a Middle Eastern country and member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). UAE has its own sovereign wealth funds (SWF) and it is very rich, managing $2.39 trillion as of May 2025.