President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. praised the World Bank on Thursday for realigning its programs to better address emerging challenges in the post-pandemic setting, particularly with its partnership with the Philippines.
“I have to commend the World Bank because now I’m looking at the list of the programs and projects in the pipeline. And there you can see the very desirable shift from what we were doing before to what we are doing now, post-pandemic,” President Marcos said during his bilateral engagement with World Bank Group President Ajay Banga.
President Marcos said that the Philippines has been a recipient of various grants from the World Bank for many decades, one of which is the recently-granted Philippine Second Financial Sector Reform Development Policy financing, amounting to $600 million.
The President hopes for the success of the program aimed at boosting resiliency and the sustainability of the financial sector following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also mentioned the Philippine Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency Project, Mindanao Inclusive Agricultural Development Project, the Philippine Rural Development Program, which is supporting the country’s bid for food supply sufficiency and rural development.
“The development programs that the World Bank is bringing to Mindanao, especially at the fundamental basic level in terms of inclusive agriculture development project, are going to help in the peace process and to normalize the lives of those who were previously part of the secessionist movement of the south,” Marcos said.
The President also cited the Teacher Effectiveness and Competencies Enhancement Project which would help the government as it recalibrates its implementation of the K-12 program.
Banga, for his part, said that the World Bank is committed to fortifying its partnership with the Philippines, along with exploring other focused areas for intervention in the coming years.
“We are trying to not only do things with poverty and poverty alleviation but actually move towards all the other things that have intertwined as challenges whether they be poverty, healthcare or, of course, be the efforts on human capital, on education, and health and infrastructure and in electronic digital infrastructure,” Banga said. PND
