Marcos hails World Bank for its 'desirable shift' to help PH economy after pandemic

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has lauded the World Bank for what he described as a "desirable shift" in its programs to address emerging challenges in the Philippines after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marcos had a bilateral engagement with World Bank Group President Ajay Banga on Thursday at the sidelines of the 43rd ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Jakarta, Indonesia.

"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," Marcos told Banga.

Marcos expressed hope for the success of the programs that aim to boost the resiliency and sustainability of the financial sector following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marcos said the Philippines has been a recipient of various grants from the World Bank for many decades. He said this includes the recently-granted Philippine Second Financial Sector Reform Development Policy financing that amounts to $600 million.

The said loan seeks to make the agriculture and fisheries sectors more competitive, sustainable, and technology-based.

According to the Department of Finance, the project covers 82 provinces across all the regions of the country, with a focus on areas where about half of the Philippines’ 109.03-million agriculture and fisheries population reside.

Meanwhile, the President further mentioned the Philippine Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency Project, the 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.

He also cited the Teacher Effectiveness and Competencies Enhancement Project that is seen to help the government as it recalibrates its implementation of the K-12 program.

For his part, Banga committed that the World Bank would continue to fortify 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. —VAL, GMA Integrated News