BAGUIO CITY – Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua challenged the National Economic Development Authority – Cordillera Administrative Region (NEDA-CAR) staff to continuously improve themselves and benchmark against global standards.

In his meeting with NEDA-CAR employees on May 16, 2022, Secretary Chua stressed the importance of NEDA as an independent socioeconomic planning agency. According to Secretary Chua, independence means being objective and data-driven in recommending reforms, projects, and programs.

Secretary Chua further emphasized that NEDA cannot be an agency of mixed nuts where some staff are diligent and others are not. He encouraged the staff to continuously learn and improve their skills in order to do more for themselves, the agency, and the country. He also challenged everyone to benchmark one’s skills not against other national agencies but against international standards.

With this, Secretary Chua emphasized that NEDA is pursuing its internal change management program to update the organizational structure of central and regional offices, enhance the agency’s facilities, and strengthen the agency’s capacity to deliver its mandate. He thanked the NRO-CAR staff for their contributions and called for their continued support to NEDA and the country.