World Bank approves $900M more in loans for PH

Amid “satisfactory”­ implemen­tation of an earlier World Bank loan for the Philippines’ health response against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Washington-based multila­teral lender has approved two more loans worth a total of $900 million (over P43 billion) for the country so the economy can recover and become disaster-resilient.

In a report, the World Bank said progress toward achieving the development objectives of the $100-million COVID-19 Emergency Response Project being implemented by the Department of Health (DOH) was “moderately satisfactory.”

“Overall implementation progress is being upgraded to satisfactory. The implementation of project components is going well. A number of contracts for the purchase of mechanical ventilators, portable X-rays, N95 masks, gowns and gloves have been signed. Other packages of equipment and supplies are in advanced stages of procurement—in effect, either close to contract signature or issuance of the request for quotation documents,” the World Bank said.

Approved by the World Bank in April, the project loan financed the purchase of more medical supplies and establishment of laboratories to save more than 16,700 Filipinos from the deadly coronavirus at the height of the longest and most stringent COVID-19 lockdown in the region.

As of Nov. 25, 55 percent of hospitals had personal protective equipment as well as infection control products and supplies according to the DOH requirements, without stock-outs in preceding one month, the World Bank said.

Another 20 percent of designated laboratories already had COVID-19 diagnostic equipment, test kits and reagents sans stock-outs during the prior month, the World Bank added.

Also, 30 percent of acute health care facilities had isolation capacity adhering to DOH-established standards, according to the World Bank.

Daily COVID-19 testing capacity at the DOH’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine as well as subnational laboratories in Cebu and Davao also jumped to 1,530, 714 and 642 as of last month, thanks to the World Bank financing.

Meanwhile, as the Inqui­rer earlier reported, the World Bank’s board of executive directors on Dec. 16 approved the $600-million Promoting Competitiveness and Enhancing Resilience to Natural Disasters Development Policy Loan, which the lender said in a statement on Thursday would “support transformational reforms to hasten the adoption of digital technologies, promote greater competition and reduce the costs of doing business to revive more economic activities and jobs in the country.”

Specifically, the reforms expected to benefit small businesses as well as vulnerable sectors included “promoting competition and digital infrastructure expansion in the telecommunications sector, shifting to digital transactions for customs procedures to reduce trade costs, indemnity insurance to protect public assets (such as schools and hospitals) from natural disasters, and implementing the national ID program for financial inclusion and social transfer program delivery,” the World Bank said.

The World Bank also approved the $300-million additional financing for the Kalahi-CIDSS National Community Driven Development Project, which will “provide grants to finance community-identified and community-managed responses that restore or improve basic social services to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters which have disproportionately affected the poorest and most vulnerable municipalities.”

“In the COVID-19 context, communities can also secure funding for isolation facilities, improvements in water and sanitation and construction or upgrading of health stations. Community members are also responsible for implementation and maintenance of these projects,” the World Bank said.