$1B in new World Bank loans to PH up for OK in Sept

The World Bank will extend three more loans worth about $1 billion to the Philippines by September to help in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Friday.

In a statement, the DOF said the concessional finan­cing extended by the Washington-based multilateral lender since April for the Philippines’ fight against COVID-19 had reached $1.2 billion.

To date, the following COVID-19-related World Bank loans were already disbursed to the Philippines or injected into its budget: the $500-million emergency COVID-19 response development policy loan; $500-million third disaster risk management development policy loan; and the $200-million additional financing for the second social welfare and development project.

During a virtual meeting with Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and other top officials of the Duterte admini­stration’s economic team last week, Ndiame Diop—the World Bank’s newly appointed country director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand—noted that from June last year up to June this year, total lending to the Philippines had amounted to $1.9 billion.

“Moving forward, the pipeline is really strong with nine projects, many of which are geared toward supporting the government’s effort to address the crisis as well as helping the recovery,” Diop was quoted by the DOF as saying.

Diop said the three projects now in the pipeline worth almost $1 billion were “expected to be approved by September.”

Besides financing COVID-19 response as well as big-ticket infrastructure projects, Diop said the World Bank was also “strongly committed to supporting [the Philippines] on the reform agenda, the policy side.”

In response, Dominguez thanked Diop, saying that “it has been very challenging for the Philippines and we are very happy that the World Bank has been very responsive to our needs and has provided us with sound advice during this difficult period.” —BEN O. DE VERA