Deal on $400-M loan inked
Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2019 16:45:00 +0000
THE government has secured a $400-million (about P20.27 billion) loan from the World Bank that will make the country more resilient to natural disasters.
In a ceremony in Manila on Thursday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd and World Bank Acting Country Director for the Philippines Achim Fock signed the agreement on the $400-million Promoting Competitiveness and Enhancing Resilience to Natural Disasters, Subprogram 1 Development Policy Loan.
According to Dominguez, the loan will help the Philippines further improve financial mechanisms available for disaster response; help in formulating public asset management policies; and enhance regulation for the insurance market against natural disasters.
It will also support the government in ensuring food security; streamlining government procedures to simplify the ease of doing business; and increasing access to economic opportunities through the roll out of the national identification and electronic payment systems, he added.
“This financing support very clearly helps drive our general effort to build a resilient, and competitive society over the medium term. We thank the World Bank for its confidence in our determination to push forward reforms that will create a strong and inclusive economy for our people,” the Finance chief said.
He noted that the $400-million loan agreement is the first tranche of a three-part Promoting Competitiveness and Enhancing Resilience to Natural Disasters Programmatic Development Policy Loan Series, which has a total loan amount of about $1.2 billion.