GMA defends hiring of US consultant

President Arroyo justified yesterday her administration’s decision to hire an American consultancy firm to undertake a "diagnostic" study on possible micro-economic reforms needed "to kick-start" the economy following the economic growth models of other countries.

The President defended her desire to employ the services of McKinsey Global Institute to conduct this study under the direction and supervision of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in her remarks at the National Press Club-sponsored "An Evening with the President" program held at the Manila Hotel last Wednesday night.

The President and the Cabinet came under severe criticisms for employing the services of McKinsey over other equally competent and internationally known Filipino economic analysts and experts.

"I received advice from McKinsey Global Institute, a think tank which Singapore and Thailand have been engaging successfully to enhance their productivity," the President said.

President Arroyo disclosed the initial assessment by McKinsey on the possible sources of economic growth in the Philippines will come from the following sectors: retail housing construction, banking, the high-tech cluster composed of software, electronics and call centers, the tourism cluster such as hotels, and transport infrastructure, public utilities composed of telecommunications, power and water, food processing, and agriculture.

"Within the next four months, we will work to achieve quick wins and complete diagnostic for these key economic sectors to look for obvious barriers to growth and conduct in-depth diagnostic of a representative sample of these sectors," the President said.

"I would like the sectoral or micro-planning to be completed in four months not only in agriculture but also for them to identify other key areas as well," she pointed out. – Marichu Villanueva