PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. welcomed Grab Philippines’ contribution in generating local employment in the country as the administration carries out initiatives to provide more jobs to Filipinos.
“Your impact on unemployment numbers is comprises about 1.1 percent of the increase in employment in the past year and half. That was Grab, so that’s the 300,000 that we’re talking about has a significant effect,” President Marcos said.
President Marcos made the remarks during the courtesy call of officials of Grab Holdings Inc. led by co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan on Tuesday at the President’s Hall in Malacañan Palace.
“Actually, there are upstreams and downstreams that comes with it, so yeah, there are jobs created not only the actual operators,” President Marcos told Grab officials.
For his part, Tan told the President that when they bought “Move It” in a successful acquisition, the company was doing 8,000 rides a day, which has now increased to over 300,000 every day.
Tan also cited a former habal-habal driver operating for 10 years who now makes three times the income now with Grab, or an earning between PhP1,500 to PhP2,500 daily, which is higher than his previous earnings of around PhP500 to PhP700 daily.
“So, it’s not just about number of jobs, Mr. President, it’s the quality, increasing livelihood,” Tan told President Marcos.
Grab, a super-app developer, is seeking the President’s support to back its plans for the Philippines, saying it targets to increase its ridership to half a million rides a day from the current 300,000 each day.
With the President’s support, Grab can attain such ridership in six months, according to Tan.
The Grab recommended last year the deregulation of the supply of transport network vehicle service (TNVS) and the legalization of motorcycle (MC) taxis.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) said the removal of the supply cap will need further evaluation, which will be based on the consultation and data provided by the transportation network companies and other relevant data.
In 2023, Grab created more than 100,000 driver and operator jobs and digitalized more than 15,000 small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which contributed to easing the national unemployment rates by 1.1 percent to 1.6 percent from 2019 to 2021.
GrabCar is operating in 25 cities while GrabFood provides services to more than 100 cities nationwide.
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