The Philippines has made history by making its first donation to the Asian Development Fund (ADF) of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Newly elected ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said in a statement that he expressed his thanks to President Duterte for the donation in a recent courtesy visit.
The amount of the donation remained undisclosed as of press time. Sources, however, told the BusinessMirror that the details of the donation will be revealed at the Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors in Incheon, South Korea, in May.
“He [Asakawa] thanked Mr. Duterte for the Philippine government’s first-ever contribution to the Asian Development Fund, which provides grants to ADB’s lower-income developing member-countries in Asia and the Pacific to reduce poverty, and improve people’s quality of life,” the statement read.
The ADF was established in 1974 and initially provided loans on concessional terms for ADB’s Developing Member Countries (DMCs). With the merger of ADB’s ADF, and the Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR) in 2017, ADF “become a grant-only operation.”
ADB explained that ADF resources come mainly from contributions from DMCs, which are mobilized under periodic replenishments, and net income transfers from OCR.
Since 1974, ADF has been replenished 11 times, the latest of which was ADF 12 which supports grant operations between 2017 and 2020.
Around 34 DMCs have provided direct contributions to the ADF including member-nations of Asean—Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The ADB is currently conducting meetings to complete its 12th replenishment or ADF 13 this year. The second meeting was held in Manila two weeks ago.
At the dinner hosted by Manila after the courtesy visit, Asakawa congratulated the Philippine government for bringing down the national poverty rate to 16.6 percent in 2018, from 23.3 percent in 2015.
Asakawa said this was largely due to the country’s high economic growth rates, job creation and expanded social assistance programs. The government aims to reduce poverty rate to 11 percent by 2022.
He also met with Finance Secretary and ADB Gov. Carlos G. Dominguez. Asakawa reiterated ADB’s full support for the country’s growth and development goals, including the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure development program, and the peace and economic development initiative in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
ADB said Asakawa and Dominguez discussed ways to improve cooperation between multilateral development institutions, particularly ADB and the World Bank. Asakawa noted this will be one of his key priorities during his term.
“ADB’s partnership with our host country, the Philippines, has never been stronger,” said Asakawa. “ADB is committed to supporting the government’s effort to reduce poverty and create high-quality jobs for Filipinos by building a competitive economy and caring society.”
ADB lending to the Philippines is planned to reach a record high of $3.3 billion this year, with about half supporting the government’s infrastructure program.
This will likely include priority projects, such as the South Commuter Railway, the Edsa Greenways Pedestrian Walkways, and the Angat Water Transmission Aqueduct 7, as well as initiatives to boost social protection, sustainable tourism, and capital market development.
Last year, ADB’s sovereign lending to the Philippines amounted to $2.5 billion, up from $1.4 billion in 2018.
The $2.75 billion Malolos-Clark Railway Project, one of the government’s major infrastructure investments, is ADB’s largest project financing in the Asia and Pacific region to date. Construction work is expected to begin by the middle of this year.