MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. expressed high hopes for the country’s continued growth Wednesday, noting its current demographic sweet spot will play a major role in fueling rapid development.

The demographic sweet spot is the period where optimal number of the country’s population would be in the working age and have few dependents.

During a one-on-one dialogue with World Economic Forum (WEF) President Børge Brende in Davos, Switzerland, President Marcos was asked about the stumbling blocks that the Philippines may encounter going forward.

The President agreed with Brende that the main obstacles for the Philippines would be infrastructure, quality of education, research and development (R&D), and bureaucratic red tape, among other things.

The President maintained, the country will be able to overcome these.

“And the reason that I’m so confident about that is because we have this workforce, we have a very, very good workforce in the Philippines,” President Marcos said.

“We have the youngest workforce in Asia. You might be surprised to know, to learn, that the average age of Filipino workers is 23 and a half years old. So that is a huge demographic dividend,” Marcos said.

The President pointed out, however, that such demographic dividend is not paid out just as a matter of course, noting that the government has to grow and develop it through upskilling and reskilling of the nation’s workforce.

Boasting about the country’s advantages in terms of labor, the Philippines’ workforce, Marcos said, is well-trained, sophisticated, and English-speaking.

In terms of technological knowhow, Filipino workers are on equal footing as any other country.

“So that is where my confidence comes from and that is the confidence that I hope to exude sufficiently, to bring that confidence also to all of you and all of our potential partners in the world,” Marcos told the WEF president.

To surmount present challenges, the President said his government is developing its infrastructure by promoting public-private partnerships (PPPs) and by reforming the bureaucracy especially through digitalization.

President Marcos stressed that reforming and reshaping the global economy gives the Philippines an opportunity to develop further. (PCO)