The basic task of the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), 2004-2010 was  to fight poverty by building prosperity for the greatest number of the Filipino people. 

With more than 4 million workers abroad, the Philippines systematically included labor emigration in the Plan to supplement its wider national program of job generation to alleviate poverty. The plan includes, for instance, topics such as dealing with brain drain by turning push factors into pull factors