INTRODUCTION
As president of our country and as your chairman of the board, I take great pride and pleasure in celebrating with you the 25th anniversary of the founding of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

That this affair coincides with the observance of Development Planning Week in our country and the fifth anniversary of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) serves to underscore the great importance of NEDA in our national life today.
NEDA THROUGH THE YEARS
NEDA’s history dates back much farther back than 25 years, when you consider that this agency had existed earlier in other forms before 1973, as the National Economic Council and as the Presidential Economic Staff.

Because NEDA is staffed by predominantly young people, it has served as the training ground for many of our public managers and corporate executives who today man the ramparts of the economy.

Another hallmark of NEDA, aside from its youth and energy is its productivity. We can count, for example, at least ten summits, and a score of major conferences, including international meetings, during my administration, especially those on poverty, employment, population, productivity, pole-vaulting, and so on. You name it, and NEDA was always there.

Apart from our roadmap to “Philippines 2000!!!” — the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 1993-98 — you also put together a good number of other valuable development plans and many sub-regional plans, notably:

* the Philippine Agenda 21 (PA-21);

* the National Action Agenda for Productivity (NAAP);

* the SZOPAD Integrated Development Plan Framework;

* the National Information Technology Plan; and,

* now, the Philippine National Development Plan for the 21st Century, or Plan 21, which we launch today.

Your work has also helped to bring to our country about $12 billion in official development assistance (ODA) funds for development projects over the past six years, greatly boosting our ability to translate our plan into real projects on the ground.

And through the various committees of the NEDA board, you have crafted some of the crucial reforms that have brought our economy out of sick bay, promoted social equity, and helped transform our country into the success story it is today, even in the face of the Asian financial crisis.

In recognizing NEDA’s accomplishments over the past 25 years, I also acknowledge those of your wider family, which includes the National Statistics Office (NSO), the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), and the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC), the principal pillars of the Philippine statistical system; the Commission on Population, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the Tariff Commission, at the forefront of our crucial tariff reforms; and last but certainly not least, the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency.

And we can add to this list the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) which can be considered a “big difference” of the Ramos administration for achieving effective unity, solidarity and teamwork with the legislature in effecting our most crucial economic, social and political reforms.
A BIGGER AND BETTER BIBINGKA
I am particularly pleased that in doing your work, you have faithfully adhered to my prescribed bibingka method of top-down/bottom-up planning at which NEDA has become good through the years. In our plan 21 and the new regional development plans, the bottom-up component from the grassroots has been strengthened even more, with more active participation of private business, local governments and non-government sectors in its formulation.

This is the reason why early in my administration, I insisted on the direct participation of non-government representatives in key government bodies like the regional development councils (RDCs), the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), the social reform council (SRC), and several more.

This is the reason why I have insisted on holding numerous summits of various kinds through the past five years, in spite of criticisms on the part of many. And this is the reason why I have constantly admonished national and local officials alike, that everything must be approached on an inter-agency and multi-sectoral basis; that all of us must work together and reach out to all concerned sectors in building confidence and consensus.

As the end of my term approaches, I am gratified that we have not only managed to cook a bigger and bigger bibingka; we have also made it taste better, and have divided and distributed it more evenly through the years. In doing all this, we have been helped along the way by the five d’s of devolution, decentralization, democratization, deregulation, and sustainable development.
NEDA AND THE FIVE D’S
In devolution, you have provided useful assistance and guidance to the local governments to enable them to take charge of local community development more effectively, by establishing the project development assistance centers in every region, which is helping provide more equitable access to ODA resources around the country.

In decentralization, your work in planning and helping to provide for various regional growth centers, special economic zones and growth areas and corridors is helping move economic activity and development outside of metro manila.

In democratization, your active work with civil society in the RDCs and the PCSD, among others, ensures that ordinary people have a voice and share the benefits of our development.

In deregulation, the many market-friendly reforms you helped bring about unleashed the competitive energies of our producers and brought about the much-admired dynamism that our economy enjoys today. And your lead role in our build-operate-transfer (b-o-t) policy and evaluation has helped leverage our limited public resources towards getting far more infrastructure facilities than government funds alone can afford.

And in sustainable development, your lead role in the PCSD and the broad-based formulation of Philippine Agenda 21 help ensure that we will not “grow now and clean up later,” but will keep things clean as we grow.

Apart from all that, it gives me great satisfaction that you have taken the lead in turning us into a donor country, even in a modest way, towards some of our needy neighbors.
MUCH WORK REMAINS TO BE DONE
All of our achievements in these areas must be sustained and must transcend the political transition that will take place this year. For this reason, I directed you to formulate the new “Philippine National Development Plan: Directions for the 21st Century”, or what we now call Plan 21. Many have worked hard over the past months to put together Plan 21, which will be our legacy not just to the next administration, but to the larger constituency of younger Filipinos who will live on well into the next century.

There is obviously much work that remains to be done. The current turbulence in the Asian economies is a sobering reminder that our work, whether at NEDA or in the government as a whole, is never done.

Let us maximize our efforts to stay on top of the situation through data networking and systematic gathering of international economic information, especially by harnessing information technology to the fullest. In this regard — and to make good our intent to get out of the Asian crisis soonest and strongest — I direct the department of budget and management to ensure the timely release of the economic surveillance and monitoring fund in NEDA’s 1998 budget.

In recognition of the valuable work that our regional development councils have been doing, I have approved the proclamation of the fourth week of September every year as RDC Week, to commemorate the creation in September 1972 of the RDCs. I strongly believe that our regions must be the basis for our development planning, especially physical planning, so that we can optimize complementation and cooperation among our 79 provinces, rather than foster wasteful duplication and needless competition among them.
CONCLUSION
When we consider all that has been achieved and all that has been prepared for the future, I believe we can say that this 25th anniversary of the NEDA is truly a silver lining.

You of this agency have truly helped to make us all confident about our future and proud to be Filipinos, especially this year as we mark the first centennial of our independence.

In closing, let me again congratulate and thank you all for ably promoting and supporting my vision for our country in the past six years. You at the NEDA Secretariat will stay on long after I am gone as your chairman of the board, but thanks to you, my own humble contributions towards winning the future for our fellow Filipinos will live on.

Sa inyong mga masisipag na kawani ng NEDA, pinaaabot ko ang aking taos-pusong pagbati at pasasalamat, sa pakikibalikat sa pagtamo ng ating mga pangarap para sa kinabukasan ng sambayanang Pilipino.

Mabuhay ang NEDA!

Mabuhay ang RDC!

Mabuhay ang nagkakaisang Pilipinas!