By Roy Pelovello

PRESIDENT Arroyo yesterday urged the private sector not to dilly-dally but move fast and make good on its commitment to help stimulate the economy and spur growth.

President Arroyo said her administration will move quickly to counter the adverse effects of the global financial crisis without having to wait for the private sector to fulfill its commitment of P100-billion government-private sector fund under her P330-billion economic stimulus plan.

?Let?s not wait for this and that to move before we do. Let?s not wait for Congress to pass this or that because we have lump sums in our budget,? Mrs. Arroyo said at the Philippine Economic Briefing held at Dusit Thani Hotel.

President Arroyo also egged on the state-run financial institutions to work on their share of the stimulus fund, and not to wait for the private sector counterpart money to come in.

Representatives of the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank said their respective boards have yet to pass a resolution approving their investment of P12.5 billion each in the stimulus package.

In an earlier hearing of the House of Representatives on the P330-billion economic stimulus plan, Socio-economic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto admitted that there is still no formal commitment from the private sector to contribute their counterpart fund to the P100-billion fund.

Likewise, representatives of the Social Security System, the Government Service Insurance System, the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank said their respective boards have yet to pass a resolution to contribute their respective share of P12.5 billion each to the P50-billion government share in the P100-billion fund.

President Arroyo noted that the country is better off than most of its neighbors.

?In 2008, when two-thirds of the world went into a recession, we still managed a 6.1-percent GNP growth. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Japan?s GDP declined by 12.7 percent, US by 5 percent, Taiwan by 9, Thailand by 4, Singapore by 3.7, and Korea by 5.6. But our GDP went up by 4.5 percent.?

While 5,500 overseas Filipino workers lost their job as a result of the global crisis, the figures remained largely the same, the President said. ?And while there were 39,000 domestic jobs lost, 3,000 new job orders are processed each day.?

Economic reforms carried out in the past year made the economy more resilient against adverse factors.

?The world financial crisis appears deeper than most anticipated.

?But I don?t think our plans are doomed to fail. We remain cautiously hopeful that we can continue to insulate the Philippines from the full frontal assault that much of the world is experiencing,? Mrs. Arroyo said.