PH Consul General in SF Receives Asian Development Bank Director General for Southeast Asia

PH CONSUL GENERAL IN SF RECEIVES ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK DIRECTOR GENERAL FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA

18 November 2021, SAN FRANCISCO – Philippine Consul General in San Francisco Neil Frank R. Ferrer received Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director General for Southeast Asia Regional Department Ramesh Subramaniam at the Consulate General.

DG Subramaniam made a presentation about ADB’s support for the Philippines and the country’s economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He highlighted a few bright spots in the Philippine economy and noted that the following are driving growth in the country — accommodative fiscal and monetary policies, sustained growth in public infrastructure investment, relaxation in mobility restrictions in the National Capital Region and progress in the national vaccination program, which help restore consumer and business confidence.

Consul General Ferrer thanked DG Subramaniam for his presentation and welcomed the ADB’s GDP growth forecasts of at least 4.5% for 2021 and 5.5% for 2022 for the Philippines. Established in 1966, the ADB is headquartered in Manila, Philippines.

DG Subramaniam lauded the Philippine Government’s “Build, Build, Build” national infrastructure development program. He cited the infrastructure and socio-economic development projects in the Philippines that the ADB supports, including ongoing Philippine transport projects, such as the USD 2.75-billion and 53-kilometer Malolos-Clark Railway in central Luzon, which is co-financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and EDSA Greenways Project, as well as other transport projects in the pipeline and socio-economic development projects, including support for the vaccination efforts of the Philippine Government. He also mentioned the ADB’s support for social protection in the Philippines, as well as its successes through the years, particularly in terms of the conditional cash transfer of the Philippine Government or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). ADB’s support for the social protection program of the Philippines will continue with the Expanded Social Assistance Project, which was approved in 2020.

The DG, however, said that the sustained economic recovery is not without risks, especially in terms of the spread of new, highly transmissible COVID-19 variants and return to stricter containment measures. He cited that these could pose a challenge on employment, for one.

DG Subramaniam also highlighted the new partnership of ADB, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam to establish an Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa, launched the ETM in Glasgow in November on the heels of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP 26. The ETM is a “blended-finance approach that seeks to retire existing coal-fired power plants on an accelerated schedule and replace them with clean power capacity.” The partnership aims to contribute to a sustainable future by reducing emissions and paving the way for a wider use of renewable energy.

Deputy Consul General Raquel R. Solano, Consuls Jed Martin Llona and Vanessa Bago-Llona, as well as Vice Consul Adrian Audrey Baccay, joined the meeting. END