A lawmaker is hoping that President Duterte will also take up in his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday, July 26, concrete policies on science, technology and the creative arts for socioeconomic and inclusive growth.
Pangasinan 4th District Representative Christopher de Venecia, chairperson of the House Committee on Creative Industry and Performing Arts, on Saturday, July 24, said strategic to the fulfillment of the administration’s 10-point socio-economic agenda is the passage of the Philippine Creative Industries Development Bill (HB 8101) and the Freelancers Protection Bill (HB 8817).
He said the two measure will develop and accelerate the 7.34-percent gross domestic product (GDP) contributing sector to the Philippine economy,, and would would enable the Philippines to be as competitive as South Korea.
Creative sector growth would also ensure the welfare of more than 4 million creative freelancers in the Philippines, he explained.
De Venecia said the Lower House would act swiftly as soon as the Senate approves the two bills so they could be sent to President Duterte for his signature. ‘’2021 is the United Nations Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development,’’ he emphasized.
‘’2030 is the year that both the Creative Economy Council of the Philippines and DTI set for the Philippines to be the number 1 creative economy in the whole of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),’’ he added.
‘’I am grateful to the Duterte Administration for the passage of landmark reforms in the last five years like the Philippine Space Agency Act which we authored and is as huge a win for the S&T community as are the passage of the Balik Scientist Act, the National Museum of the Philippines Act, and the Mental Health Act,’’ De Venecia said.