WB disburses $3.6B to East Asia, $400M to PH

INTERNATIONAL lender World Bank ( WB) recorded a total of $ 3.6- billion in disbursement for East Asia and the Pacific, while allotting a total of $ 400 million for the Philippines, according to the bank’s annual report.

In the 2013 World Bank Annual Report released this month, the WB said that while the $ 3.6 billion for East and Southeast Asia this year was lower compared to the $ 4 billion in 2012, the lender has $ 30.4- billion worth of projects under implementation in the region as of June.

The international- based lender said that the funds are to be appropriated for “reducing poverty and inequality; opening up markets and opportunities in the Pacific; pursuing joint business strategies; and forging knowledge partnerships to deliver solutions” among others.

In the Philippines’ case, the WB focused the appropriated funds more on areas and strategies that would enhance the present business conditions of the country. “The projects included efforts to improve the financial sector in Indonesia, improve livelihoods through agriculture in Mongolia, expand access to electricity in Myanmar, increase women’s empowerment in the Pacific, improve agribusiness in a post- conflict zone in the southern part of the Philippines, and promote efficiency and value addition in agriculture in Vietnam,” WB said, referring to the priority projects.

For the past WB- funded projects, the report cited that the Manila Third Sewerage project ( MTSP) that it supported which benefited an estimate of 3.3 million residents in the Philippines as of 2012. Since the start of the project in 2005, the ongoing MTSP set up over 77,000 water connections with sewerage treatment to “deliver improved sanitation services and better treatment plants.”

From 1945 to 2012, the WB recorded a total of 188 projects supported in the Philippines, amounting to P15.1 billion.

KRISTYN NIKA M. LAZO