WB okays $300-M loan for Phl gov’t reforms

MANILA, Philippines - The World Bank has approved a $300-million loan for the Philippines in support of government reforms needed to promote inclusive growth and strengthen the creation of jobs.

In a statement, the World Bank said this new development policy loan (DPL) is intended to support the government’s programs in raising infrastructure investments, education, social services to aid the poor, lowering the cost of doing business to create more jobs, and for fiscal transparency.

DPLs, which provide quick-disbursing assistance to countries, support policy and institutional reforms in order to make an environment for sustainable and equitable growth, based on the country’s own development agenda, the World Bank said.

“The Philippines continues to reap the results of its diligent efforts to achieve inclusive growth. The World Bank is pleased to ramp up support for accelerating reforms through this new assistance and other programs,” World Bank country director Motoo Konishi said. 

“Implementation of important infrastructure projects, improving the investment climate for small and medium enterprises, increasing investment in the health and education of poor families, and greater government transparency and good governance are concrete measures for enhancing growth that creates jobs and reduces poverty,” he added.

The new financing will support the construction of more farm-to-market roads, the improvement of thoroughfares in tourism areas, and the simplification of registration and licensing procedures in order to encourage the creation of more small and medium enterprises, 

The loan  will also help update the National Household Targeting System to enable more qualified poor families to be enrolled under the government’s social welfare programs and expand the coverage of the conditional cash transfer program so more children up to 18 years of age will finish high school.

At the same time, the World Bank said the financing will support the implementation of key fiscal reforms and reforms meant to standardize budget, expenditure, audit and reporting classifications for agencies.

The World Bank added this borrowing also supports the Open Data Initiative through data.gov.ph, which will allow the general public to access 600 data sets from different government agencies.

“The government sees transparency around the use of public resources as fundamental to institutionalizing governance reforms. By making government data available to the general public, the government can get better feedback from citizens on how it can best deliver social services while making those in public service more accountable,” Kai Kaiser, senior economist at the World Bank, said.

He added the government is expected to improve other portals in promoting budget transparency and public spending such as OpenReconstruction, which provides information on government reconstruction efforts; OpenRoad, which carries data on tourist areas and farm-to-market roads; and OpenLGU, which will require local government units to post financial and procurement information online for greater transparency.

Philippine economic growth quickened to 6.4 percent in the second quarter from 5.6 percent in the first three months of the year. However, the first half expansion only settled at six percent, lower than the government’s 6.5 to 7.5 percent target.

“Reforms in the last several years have yielded strong growth and macroeconomic stability for the country, leading to significant job creation and poverty reduction. But we can do much more to generate more and better jobs and bring millions of Filipinos out of poverty,” Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said in a statement.

“Support for these reforms from the international community as well as the different sectors of society will help the country consolidate these gains and sustain the reform momentum to make them irreversible,” he added.