IFC to continue supporting RP - Teves

The International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has assured it would continue its support for the Philippines and is ready to rescue private companies hit by the global financial crisis, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said yesterday.

Teves said Lars Thunell, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the IFC and managing director of the World Bank Group, gave the assurance during his meeting with President Arroyo in Malacañang before noon yesterday.

“Essentially, the IFC indicated that it will continue supporting the Philippine economy through funding of projects,” Teves told The STAR in a telephone interview. “They (IFC officials) also indicated that they are looking into assisting companies with liquidity problems and for the purchase of bad assets.”

He said many of the specifics of IFC’s plans were discussed during the series of meetings in Washington two weeks ago with finance officials from the Asia Pacific region.

“I think we have a large level of support from the IFC,” Teves said, adding the IFC is more involved with the private sector as the investment arm of the World Bank.

He said Mrs. Arroyo “was very happy” with the assurances given by Thunell. Teves noted the thrust of the IFC was in line with the President’s call for a concerted effort to shield the region from the full brunt of the global financial crisis.

He said he is unaware if any company in the country would need assistance from the IFC but Thunell’s assurance would boost investor confidence.

The World Bank has offered to finance some of the Philippines’ social programs and big-ticket infrastructure projects as a sign of confidence in the country’s economy, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto earlier said.

“They are very much interested in funding public-private sectors projects, BOT (build-operate-transfer) projects and our conditional cash transfer programs for the poor for social protection,” Recto said.

“They are very bullish on our economy so they think their investments in the country would be viable and make money out of it,” he said. He said part of the World Bank’s mandate is to extend development loans.

He said among the big-ticket projects the World Bank also wanted to fund is the LRT 1 extension project previously estimated to cost at least $700 million or over P40 billion. The extension, which is a priority project of the Arroyo administration, would have the LRT line run from Monumento in Caloocan to Dasmariñas, Cavite.

As far as the conditional cash transfer program is concerned, the World Bank could assist it in terms of grants, Recto said.

“If these (offers) would push through, we could free up our resources for education and infrastructure,” he said, adding the loans would not be tied. — With Ted Torres