A development policy loan agreement to boost fiscal sustainability and governance transparency amounting to USD 300 million has been signed between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and The World Bank. Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima signed The World Bank’s Third Development Policy Loan (DPL 3) last 14 October 2014 on behalf of the Philippine government.
The loan program aims to spur sustained and inclusive growth and job creation through increasing physical and human capital investment, as well as tackling regulatory barriers in land, labor, and capital markets.
Under DPL 3, the Philippines will receive support in strengthening priority public investment implementation, reducing the cost of doing business for jobs creation and poverty reduction, developing the human capital of the poor, promoting fiscal transparency and good governance, as well as consolidating fiscal sustainability through revenue mobilization and risk management.
Activities in focus under DPL 3 include infrastructure development and the streamlining of business registration processes for MSMEs. DPL 3 will also support the Philippines in policy and institutional development on developing human capital, transparency, enhancing the tax effort, and the advancement of an integrated fiscal risk management strategy.
In signing the agreement, Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said, “DPL 3’s strong focus on fiscal sustainability, infrastructure, human capital, and good governance enables the Philippines to boost our inclusive growth agenda as we reach the tail-end of this administration. This is consistent with the Philippines’ partnership with The World Bank in ensuring our economic turnaround story translates into real and sustainable gains for the Filipino people.”
While the Department of Finance serves as the main liaison with the World Bank on budget support operations, responsibilities for policy dialogue as well as monitoring and evaluation are shared with DBM, DPWH, DOT, DA, Climate Change Commission, DTI, DSWD, DepEd, and DOH.
