Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno and World Bank
(WB) Country Director for
the Philippines Ndiamé
Diop signed four (4) loan
agreements amounting to
US$1.14 billion on June
26, 2023 at the Department of Finance (DOF)
office in Manila to finance
various government initiatives aimed at accelerating economic recovery,
strengthening climate
resilience, improving the
quality of education, and
developing the agriculture
and fisheries sectors.
US$276 million
will support projects of
the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries
and Aquatic Resources
(DA-BFAR), specifically
the Mindanao Inclusive
Agriculture Development
Project (MIADP) and the
Philippine Fisheries and
Coastal Resiliency (FishCoRe) Project.
The MIADP aims
to sustainably increase the
agricultural productivity,
resiliency, and accessibility to markets and services
of organized farmers and
fisherfolks in selected ancestral domains and for
selected value chains in
Mindanao.
Meanwhile, FishCoRe aims to improve
fisheries management,
enhance the value of fisheries production, and elevate incomes in selected
coastal communities.
To improve the
quality of education,
a US$110 million loan
agreement was signed for
the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Teacher
Effectiveness and Competencies Enhancement
Project (TEACEP).
The TEACEP
aims to improve equitable
access to quality teaching
in Kindergarten to Grade 6
(K-6) in project-supported
areas, namely Regions IX
(Zamboanga Peninsula),
XII (SOCCSKSARGEN)
and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (BARMM).
Finally, budgetary support amounting to
US$750 million under the
Philippines First Sustainable Recovery Development Policy Loan (DPL)
will support the country’s
policy reforms aimed at
boosting environmental
protection and climate resilience.
The loan agreements were signed using
a digital signing platform
(DocuSign) in support of
the WB’s shift to simplify
and streamline its business processes through
digital technology. The WB
will be using e-signatures
as the default modality for
the signing of its financing agreements beginning
July 1, 2023.
The WB-International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD) is the Philippines’
third largest official development assistance (ODA)
partner. DOF.GOV
