{"id":61189,"date":"2015-09-12T01:34:19","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=61189"},"modified":"2015-09-12T01:34:19","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:34:19","slug":"top-world-bank-official-gives-phl-good-job-praise-at-apec-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/09\/12\/top-world-bank-official-gives-phl-good-job-praise-at-apec-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"Top World Bank official gives PHL \u2018good job\u2019 praise at APEC meet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Makati<\/a>
Makati City skyline. (Photo from Make It Makati on Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu \u2013 A top World Bank official on Friday gave the Philippines a pat on the back saying it has done a \u201cgood job\u201d in five areas.<\/p>\n

At a press briefing on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers\u2019 Meeting held here, Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific Region, on Friday said the areas are:<\/p>\n

Management of people\u2019s money<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the APEC context, best practices include fiscal transparency. The Philippines has been a leader in this,\u201d van Trotsenburg said.<\/p>\n

Getting more private companies in public infrastructure development<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn many economies, public sector dominates infrastructure. And they struggle to get the private sector to participate,\u201d said van Trotsenburg.<\/p>\n

But, for him, the Philippines is a model economy for successfully implementing private business ventures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can look at the Philippines\u2019 public-private partnerships,\u201d he noted. \u201cIn East Asia, the Philippines has more private sector participation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disaster-risk reduction and management<\/strong><\/p>\n

Due to experiences such as the super typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) in 2013, the Philippines was able to find new ways to \u201cbuild back better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support for the poor<\/strong><\/p>\n

In terms of providing support for the poor, van Trotsenburg said the Philippines benefited from the experience of Mexico, Peru, and Colombia on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrograms (such as the CCT) have shown… how to ease the situation of inequality,\u201d he said. \u201cTo fight exclusion, you have to ensure that kids in disadvantaged situations have a fighting chance to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Philippines and other Latin American economies, said van Trotsenburg, CCT had been scaled up quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of transparency on this and active empowerment at the local level,\u201d he said. \u201cConditional cash transfer programs have proven more successful in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall economic management<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the Philippines\u2019 overall economic management, van Trotsenburg said, \u201cauthorities have done a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Philippines allowed for prudent macroeconomic policies that have lowered the inflation rate,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cWorld economy has varying factors that influence economies positively or negatively. The Philippines has done relatively well.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Philippines was not the only economy doing a good job addressing the \u201cgrowth agenda.\u201d East Asia has been a world leader of economic growth.<\/p>\n

However, van Trotsenburg said, although an important precondition, simple growth was still not enough because it also had to be inclusive and sustainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile poverty reduction in the region has been unprecedented, a lot of challenges remain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With 100 million people in East Asia still living in extreme poverty, he said the real challenge was to make sure that these people also benefited from the growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Bank has emphasized that growth benefits all, and in that context has emphasized that policy matters,\u201d van Trotsenburg said.<\/p>\n

According to him, it is very important for World Bank to join the APEC meetings hosted by the Philippines this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe APEC setting is unique because it unites East Asia with key countries in the West,\u201d he said. \u201cAs it unites Asia and the West, APEC allows for powerful exchange of knowledge and experiences across hemispheres.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu \u2013 A top World Bank official on Friday gave the Philippines a pat on the back saying …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":10085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-61189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-original","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}