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S ,, // W _ - -- ~ A Newsletter of the World Bank Resident Mission in the Philippines WB-GOP Agree on US$1.3 Billion in New Loans or the next three years, from -I. , - _ July 1996 to June 1999, the World !! Bank will make available new loans, -- ranging between USS 1.1 billion to USS1.3 billion. The loan assistance will support the Government's efforts to -- - sustain growth and distribute the gains of growth more widely. This was the w agreement of the World Bank and the / Philippine Government during this year's programming dialogue. _i The World Bank, led by newly-ap- AM pointed Mr. Javad K. Shirazi, met with the Philippines' top economic and finance managers to agree on the Bank's lending >; _-w : and technical assistance to the " - _ _ I Government's development projects. Shirazi, who was on his first visit to the Philippines, was impressed with the _41 strong economic performance of the Government and World Bank officials at the Programming Mission. From left: Finance Secretary Roberto economy in the last few years. de Ocampo, NEDA Director-General and Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito, World Bank "The World Bank will continue to Director Javod Khalilzadeh-Shirazi, and World Bank Resident Representative Vinay Bhorgavo. support the Government's efforts to World Bank Approves US$281M in 4 distribute the gains of economic New to growth more widely,' Mr. Shirazi an- Loans Philippines nounced. (,D WB-GOP, p.2 he World Bank recently These projects will continue to sup- approved 4 new loans to assist Port the Government's efforts to sus- approjects in qualitY elementary tain the momentum of the economic I N s I ]D E education, agrarian reform, infrastruc- progress achieved and to distribute the ture and water resources. Total assis- gains of growth more widely. The new DialoguewithNGOs ............. 2 tance from the World Bank was USS281.4 loans reflect the Bank's program of as- AccesstoworldBank million. These projects were: Agrarian sistance in three priority areas: poverty information ........... 4 Reform Communities (ARC) Project, alleviation, environmentally sustainable -TheTaiDanPlace: Second Subic Bay Freeport Project,Third growth, and infrastructure develop- NewWorld6BankOffice ........... 6 Elementary Education Project (TEEP), ment. and the Water Resources Development Project (WRDP). c World Bank, p.3  WB-GOP, from p. 1 The Philippine delegation, led by * j - - ' i , Socio-Economic Planning secretary * , Cielito F. Habito, stated that the program- , TX _ A ming mission was timely in the sense that * , , the last two years of the Ramos adminis- tration should be able to consolidate the - priorities for development assistance. -_ I'm quite happy that the Philippine , . Government and the World Bank i, .4 a share the same priorities in poverty * . alleviation, environmentally sustain- -t Ii i able growth, and infrastructure de- ) EP velopment, in partnership with the 4; private sector," he stated. The Third Elementory Education Project is ,imed at improving elementary education in poor provinces in the Philippines. The new loan assistance will support some 15 to 19 projects over a three-year period. An agreement was also reached The World Bank's non-lending services in- earlier consultation during the project on a technical assistance program which clude technical assistance, economic and design phase to ensure that the projects will cover policy advice and local capac- sector work, and institutional develop- would be responsive to the needs of the ity building. Grant funds will be used to ment support. The Bank and the GOP target beneficiaries.* support this program. also agreed to move towards a closer and These were some of the topi.s dis- facilitatecommunicationswithinterested Dialogue with cussed in a dialogue with the World Bank NGOs with the Task Manager. The NGOS NGOs and some 28 NGO representatives. Mr. also proposed specific topics for discus- Vinay Bhargava, Resident Representative sion for the succeeding meetings. These of the World Bank in the Philippines, led includedtheBank'sstrategyofassistance W * ghat are the new directions the discussion. for the Philippines, the Bank's Policy on of the World Bank, globally It was agreed that the Project ln, orma- Disclosure of Information and other and in the Philippines? tion Documents be made available project-specific and sector-specific inter- How does the World Bank work with through the Resident Mission, early in the ests. Major NGO coalitions, such as the NGOs? How can NGOs have access to identification stage. Many of the NGOs Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform World Bank documents? have expressed their interest at a very and Rural Development(ANGOC),the Free- early stage. The Resident Mission would dom from Debt Coalition (FDC), the Convergence for Community- c e n t e r e d A r e a _- . - - Development(Convergence), the Alliance for Philippine Partners on Enterprise De- ;K. >) r. ,velopment (APPEND), NGOs for Integrated r ^ \ dIr*;\Xl*'} t. _ _ Protected Areas (NIPA), and WAND. The Caucus of Development NGO Networks l._ i -t* 6 ;,j ffi &l 1 0_ 6 (CODE-NGO), an umbrella organization K. <! P - 'i ljiconsisting of major development NGO F + | *-. s r wnetworks, was also represented. U w _w t