INTRODUCTION
A very happy and prosperous new year to all of you. I would like to thank all of you — the cabinet members, members of the cabinet clusters, the chairmen and co-chairmen of the regional development councils, the officers of the leagues of provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays, the officials of government agencies and representatives from different sectors particularly business and labor, and non-government organizations — for your untiring efforts that resulted in substantial growth in 1994.

The past year was the acid test that determined whether we could fully prepare ourselves for the challenges of the incoming century and be among the newly industrializing countries by the year 2000.

As a precondition for economic recovery, we restored political stability and civic order — not at the expense of, but by enhancing democracy. And we pursued reforms to open up the economy and level the playing field of enterprise.
ECONOMIC GAINS
Foreign investors have recognized our bright economic prospects and are now bringing in their funds. And our positive efforts have been noticed by and reported upon by an increasing number of prestigious international financial institutions and media analysts who, in previous years, considered us the basket case of Asia.

Our own private sector has shown much enthusiasm for our growth through its support of our flagship programs. Of the p220 billion required for our flagship projects, p139 billion or 63% came from private sector participation.

The continued development of the former military bases at Subic and Clark into commercial, industrial and tourism areas has generated investments of p15 billion for Subic and p7 billion for Clark.

We have put in place our physical and institutional structures not only to accelerate countryside development but also to serve as adjustment mechanisms while we transition to the new trade order under the world trade organization.

We have begun to assert ourselves as a member of good standing of the community of nations. Our active participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and full support for a stronger ASEAN have paved the way for our having been selected to host the 1996 APEC Leaders’ Summit. The Philippines now chairs the “Group of 77” of the United Nations which is the umbrella of some 120 developing countries.

Our peace process continues to gain more adherents to our democratic life as we apply our amnesty, reconciliation and livelihood programs to former insurgents and rebels.
FOCUS ON SOCIAL REFORM
In the face of our improved economic performance and enhanced political stability, we now have focused upon a social reform agenda to bring the benefits of economic growth quicker to the masses.

We have launched a package of macro and micro socio-economic measures that would generate more jobs, increase livelihood opportunities, improve basic services and address the fundamental inequities in our society. We are bringing the most disadvantaged sectors into the mainstream of growth.

Against this backdrop of solid gains, we will build our hopes for 1995 and the rest of the years leading to the year 2000 and beyond. In this workshop, you will review the performance of the past year with an eye to the future so that we can stay on the right track and so that our gains will be sustainable, equitable and rising irreversibly.

As we hold this first CORD-RDC workshop, let us bear in mind that we must improve on 1994 and move steadily and more speedily towards “Philippines 2000!!!”.

Maraming salamat!