The Philippines has outlined its strategic priorities for collabora-tion with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), underscoring a focus on digitalization, infrastructure development, human capital enhancement and support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement yesterday.
Representing the DOF at the 57th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors, Undersecretary Joven Balbosa highlighted these priorities aimed at accelerating the nation’s progress.
In its Philippine country statement, the DOF emphasized the ADB’s pivotal role in supporting the country’s digitalization and human capital development programs and urged the bank to boost support for physical and digital infrastructure as well as capacity building for MSMEs.
The DOF has identified these key areas which are to be endorsed by the ADB Board and integrated into its 2024-2029 Country Partnership Strategy for the Philippines.
The DOF also called for increased support to fund the long-term sustainable development objectives of the bank’s developing member countries.
“We hope the ADB will make further headway on improving and enhancing its organization and structure, operational approaches and financial capacities to maximize the Bank’s potential in providing more grants and additional concessional financing resources to support developing countries in addressing the gaps and complex challenges in the global development landscape,” the DOF said in the statement.
The DOF expressed support for the approval of the ADB’s enhanced Capital Adequacy Framework that will provide the bank with an additional $100 billion in additional lending capacity for the next 10 years.
However, the DOF emphasized this increase in resources should be utilized by the bank to maximize support for addressing current crises and future challenges.
The DOF also looks forward to the implementation of the $10 billion climate finance programmed by the ADB for the Philippines for the next five years, and encouraged the bank to scale up the same support to other developing countries.
Meanwhile, the Philippines has pledged anew to the Asian Development Fund (ADF) to assist the world’s least developed nations during the ADF 14 Replenishment Meeting on May 2
“This level of contribution maintains the relative position of the Philippines with respect to its previous contribution and the overall fund size, while also meeting the country’s austerity measures in line with the Philippines’ current fiscal consolidation strategy,” Balbosa said in his intervention.
The ADF is the ADB’s concessional lending mechanism that assists in promoting poverty reduction and improving the quality of life of the bank’s most vulnerable developing member countries through grants and loans at very low interest rates.
It is funded through regular replenishments from direct voluntary contributions from members, allocations from net income from the ADB’s ordinary capital resources and revenue from investments and other sources.
Beneficiaries include Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Nepal, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Since the ADF’s establishment in 1974, five former beneficiaries have become ADF donors, including the Philippines, which graduated from receiving the assistance in 1999.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto has emphasized that the move is meant to stand in solidarity with vulnerable nations worldwide in addressing global challenges as well as open up more opportunities for the Philippines as it ascends to upper middle-income status soon.
“As a past beneficiary ourselves, we understand that true and lasting change can only be achieved if we combine our efforts and work together. We expect this global assistance platform to open up more opportunities for the Philippines, such as in trade, the exchange of knowledge, dialogue on solutions to our development challenges and of course increased financing to support our rise to upper middle-income status,” Recto said.
In the Governors’ Plenary on May 4, the DOF urged the ADB to explore innovative ways to unlock additional resources for developing member countries to drive sustainable growth and called on private sector partners to catalyze green investments.
