1  gross domestic product Eastern Cape Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism 3 Province of the Eastern Cape website, www.dedea.gov.za 4 Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council, Provincial economic growth, December 2016 2  2  The latest unemployment statistics from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey show that the number of people employed in the Eastern Cape grew by 5 000 over the fourth quarter of 2016.
The unprecedented challenges from the pandemic revealed how critical it was that we diligently and deliberately pursued key structural reforms in the last two decades. We pursued these reforms as a result of tough lessons learned from past crises in the last few decades. Thus, the Philippines entered the crisis in a position of strength, with sound fundamentals and ample policy space.