World Bank official due in RP

World Bank managing director Juan Jose Daboub will visit the Philippines from Sept. 10-13, 2006, to convey the World Bank’s support for the country’s economic and social development agenda. The visit comes in the context of the successful implementation of the Philippines’ fiscal reform program that has significantly reduced the macroeconomic uncertainties the country faced two years ago.

Daboub will have a series of meetings with economic managers and other government authorities, international development partners, as well as leaders of civil society, business groups, and other members of the private sector. The meetings will highlight support for fiscal reforms and the importance of broadening reforms to support better governance that will result in higher growth and investment, rapid poverty reduction, and improved social services, especially to the poor.

The World Bank official will deliver a speech on corruption and competitiveness in a luncheon forum co-organized by the Makati Business Club and the Asian Institute of Management. He will also meet with senior officials of the Asian Development Bank to discuss regional initiatives, one of which is the World Bank’s strategy for good governance and anti-corruption. He will also visit two projects – a water project in Metro Manila that highlights successful private-public sector partnership and the "Justice on Wheels" project. The latter project is funded by the World Bank through the Supreme Courts Judicial Reform Program.

"I look forward to visiting the Philippines – a country that has so much potential and so many opportunities and has a few interesting similarities with my home country, El Salvador. It will be a great privilege to meet with the country’s leaders to seek their views on how the World Bank can continue to support the Philippines in light of its current progress and challenges," Daboub said.

Daboub, a native of El Salvador, assumed his current position as managing director of the World Bank on July 1, 2006. He overseas three of the World Bank’s six regional departments covering Africa, Middle-East and East Asia, as well as two of the World Bank’s four key thematic networks focusing on human development and sustainable development. Before joining the World Bank, he was El Salvador’s minister of finance and chief of staff to the President of El Salvador.

Before his Manila visit Daboub will visit Vietnam where he will attend 13th APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Hanoi. In Vietnam, he will meet with senior government officials, civil society groups, other development partners, and private sector representatives to learn more about how that country is managing its rapid growth and transition process. From Manila, he will proceed to the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Singapore.