MANILA - The Philippines needs to speed up its infrastructure overhaul and offer incentives to lure foreign investors and sustain the economy's growth momentum, an economist said Monday.

President Rodrigo Duterte's government needs "dynamic initiatives" to make the Philippines more competitive, compared to the rest of the region, said Rajiv Biswas, chief Asia Pacific Economist at IHS Markit.

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"Other Asian countries are not standing still," Biswas told ANC's Early Edition. "The Philippines needs to put more effort into attracting investments. That’s how you can generate jobs growth within the Philippines."

"In the end, the real solution has to be creating jobs in the Philippines and not relying in the future on just foreign worker remittances," Biswas said.

Biswas said gross domestic product could grow up to 6.5 percent this year and in 2018, driven in part by a booming outsourcing sector and steady dollar remittances from overseas workers.

"Because this is being sustained year after year, it means considerable progress will happen in terms of living standards and per capita GDP," he said.