President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he wanted the country to be on the right track and prepared for the next 50 years where no one goes hungry.

In his interview with Maeil Business Newspaper Chairman and Publisher Chang Dae-Whan in Malacañang earlier this week, Marcos said his government is determined to make the Philippines a more advanced and developed country.

"When I was asked very early on after taking office, 'What is your aspiration for the Philippines?' It's very simple, no one goes hungry, no more hungry Filipinos. And that's what we are trying to do," Marcos said.

His latest remarks came after a recent poll by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that more Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger in the first quarter of the year, the highest number of people experiencing this since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

When asked what kind of paradigm change he was going to bring to Filipinos, Marcos told Chang that he always sees the Filipino workforce as the country's best asset that isn't being used to its full potential.

He said that the government needs to set up the economy so that the many Filipinos who live and work abroad can fully utilize the many skilled English-speaking workers who are available.

"It is up to us, in the government now, to change how we think, and so I think it's just one fundamental… when you ask if what's the paradigm shift, there are many paradigm shifts that seem to change our thinking. We have to change the way to do things," he explained.

He likewise discussed how the government needs to study the internet space more.

Besides that, he said, it needs to know how to train people so they are ready for the current job market.

Strong PH-Korea relationship still robust

In the same interview, Marcos discussed the strong political ties between the Philippines and South Korea on the 75th anniversary of bilateral relations between the two countries.

The formal relations between the East Asian country and the Southeast Asian nation started on 3 March 1949.

"The relationship between our two countries has been ongoing for 75 years now, and this has been a very important partnership for the Philippines, and I think, also for the Republic of South Korea," Marcos said.

"What we are now trying to do is to promote the partnerships that we have begun in the past so that the exchange between our two countries will increase and will be mutually beneficial to both the Republic of Korea and the Republic of the Philippines," he added.