New WB VP for East Asia and Pacific visits Phl

MANILA, Philippines - Axel Van Trotsenburg, the World Bank’s vice president for East Asia and Pacific (EAP), will visit the Philippines this week to confer with the country’s leaders on how the WB could best align its emerging assistance strategy with the country’s inclusive growth agenda in the next three years.

This is Van Trotsenburg’s first visit to the Philippines, following his trips to other countries in the EAP region since he assumed his post last Feb. 1. During his stay, he will meet with President Aquino and his economic team, other top government officials and representatives from civil society, business groups, media, and other development partners.

“This is a timely visit as it will give our vice president the opportunity to exchange views with President Aquino and his economic team, as well as other sectors of society, on how the country and the Bank could work together to build on the gains of high economic growth to end extreme poverty and improve the lives of many more Filipinos,” said World Bank country director Motoo Konishi.

Boosted by the strong performance of manufacturing and construction as well as increased consumer and government spending, the Philippine economy grew 7.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013, the highest in East Asia.

Konishi added that the Van Trotsenburg will also share with the country’s leaders the World Bank Group’s new twin goals of reducing extreme poverty globally by 2030 and building shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in every country. He said discussions in these meetings will help shape the focus of WB’s assistance strategy in the Philippines in the next three years.

Before taking on the challenge of handling the $31.8-billion portfolio of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), popularly known as the World Bank, and the International Development Association (IDA), Van Trotsenburg, in his post as WB’s vice-president for concessional finance and global partnerships, led the negotiations for the record-high $49.3 billion replenishment of resources for the IDA’s fund for development projects in the world’s poorest countries.

Established in 1960, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing credits and grants for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities, and improve people’s living conditions, with little or no interest and repayments are stretched over 25 to 40 years, including a five- to 10-year grace period.

Van Trotsenburg has also served as country director for Colombia and Mexico, and for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay of the Latin America and Caribbean region. His previous responsibilities with the WB also included operations posts in the African region and supervision of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which resulted in a total $37-billion debt relief for 24 of the world’s poorest countries.

Van Trotsenburg will also take the opportunity to learn from government staff and local communities working on WB-assisted projects in the countryside and poor communities in the city.

Under the theme, Making Growth Work for the Poor, the WB has been supporting the Philippine Development Plan. As of May 2013, it has a total commitment of over $2.04 billion with an additional $910 million in commitments from its private sector arm, the International Finance Corp.