World Bank approves $400-M loan for PH
Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2019 16:16:33 +0000
THE World Bank will lend $400 million (about P20.27 billion) to the Philippines to make the country more resilient to natural disasters.
This came after the Washington-based multilateral lender’s board of executive directors approved the Promoting Competitiveness and Enhancing Resilience to Natural Disasters, Subprogram 1 Development Policy Loan (DPL).
In a statement on Wednesday, the World Bank said the loan was aimed at boosting the country’s competitiveness and fiscal sustainability, and strengthening financial resilience to natural disasters and climate change impacts.
It also said DPLs provided quick-disbursing assistance to countries undertaking reforms. These loans typically support the policy and institutional changes needed to create an environment conducive to sustained and equitable growth as defined by borrower-countries’ own development agenda.
Reforms supported by DPLs include streamlining processes to reduce the cost of doing business; establishing a foundational ID system to improve the efficiency and transparency of public and private services; enhancing access to financial services through improved payment systems; and strengthening management of public assets and fiscal risks to natural disasters and climate change impacts.
The World Bank and the Department of Finance will sign the loan agreement today, December 19.
Meanwhile, the multilateral institution also renewed its commitment to support the Philippines with a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for the country for 2019 to 2023.
Endorsed by its board, the framework will prioritize investments in human capital (health, education, nutrition), competitiveness and job creation, peace-building, climate and disaster resilience, governance, and digital transformation.
“With the new Country Partnership Framework, the World Bank Group renews its commitment to support the Philippines by mobilizing financing, global knowledge and technical expertise to support reforms and programs that help speed up poverty reduction and promote greater inclusion,” said Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank vice president for East Asia and the Pacific.
The institution pointed out that the Philippines nearly doubled its gross domestic product per capita over the past two decades, from $1,607 in 2000 to $3,022 in 2018, and is poised to cross the threshold from lower-income country status to upper-middle-income country in the next few years.
The World Bank also said the country was also making progress in reducing poverty, owing in large part to the expansion of jobs outside farming and fishing and of social protection, and remittances from local and overseas workers.
Citing the latest government data, the World Bank said the Philippines’ poverty rate dropped from 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015 and 16.6 percent in 2018.
Mara Warwick, World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, said the country could deepen inclusive growth and broaden shared prosperity by tackling child malnutrition and learning gaps in education; promoting policies that create more and better jobs for Filipino workers; and focusing on the dual risk of conflict and natural disasters that hurt poor communities.
“The new Country Partnership Framework aims to help overcome the core constraints that continue to hamper the country’s efforts to address the remaining vulnerability of many Filipino families,” she emphasized.