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Saturday, May 4, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 200
BUT NOT AT THIS PRICE ADB Philippines Country Director Pavit Ramachandran outlines ADB Philippines Country Director Pavit Ramachandran outlines multilateral multilateral banks’ partnership strategybank’s with Manila, to prevent socioeconomic, as well as environmental fallout in transition to UMIC. partnership strategy with Manila, to prevent socioeconomic, as well as environmental, fallout in By Cai U. Ordinario transition to UMIC.
"Now that the administration (wants) to become an upper middle-income country, and they're tracking well in that direction mostly based on very sound macro fiscal fundamentals (and) growth is robust as you know, I think what is important is to ensure that this transition is inclusive, is sustainable and is resilient," Ramachandran told this newspaper. ADB Philippines Country Director Pavit Ramachandran ADB
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In an interview, ADB Philippines Country Director Pavit Ramachandran told the BusinessMirror this is the overall objective of the 2024-2029 Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) that ADB is working on with the national government. The strategy will focus on three pillars—human capital development, economic competitiveness and quality infrastructure, and nature-based solutions and disaster resilience. The CPS will also have three cross-cutting priorities, namely, digitalization, climate change, and the private sector. “Now that the administration [wants] to become an upper middle-income country, and they’re tracking well in that direction mostly based on very sound macro fiscal fundamentals [and] growth is robust as you know, I think what is important is to ensure that this transition is inclusive, is sustainable and is resilient,” Ramachandran told this newspaper. “[That is] our overarching objective in terms of moving to an upper income or a high middleincome country to make sure that this is anchored on sound fundamentals and to secure those foundations,” he added. Ramachandran said the CPS is still being drafted and has not yet been approved by the ADB Board. Earlier, he said the CPS will be completed in the second semester of this year.
cluding learning poverty that was exacerbated by the lockdowns implemented to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) earlier estimated that the lockdowns imposed by the government are expected to cost the Philippine economy a total of P41.4 trillion in the next 40 years. This includes human capital losses amounting to P15.528 trillion in the next 10 to 40 years. This is composed of education-related losses worth P11.025 trillion and health losses, P4.503 trillion (See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2021/09/25/neda-pandemic-tocost-phl-economy-p41-4-trillion-intotal-losses-over-next-40-years/). “We’ve had a long engagement
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The strategy will focus on three pillars - human capital development, economic competitiveness and quality infrastructure, and nature-based solutions and disaster resilience. The CPS will also have three cross-cutting priorities namely, digitalization, climate change, and the private sector.
BILISI, Georgia—The Philippines’s transition to an upper middleincome country must not cause social and economic injustice, as well as environmental degradation, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
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By Cai U. Ordinario
In an interview, ADB Philippines Country Director Pavit Ramachandran told BusinessMirror this is the overall objective of the 2024-2029 Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) that ADB is working on with the national government.
with some of these flagship social protection programs: the 4Ps (Pantawid ng Pamilyang Pilipino Program), Kalahi CIDSS, and now we’ll be working on the Walang Gutom, the food voucher program,” Ramachandran said. “So we think that has to be the first priority just because everything will be premised on ensuring that right and [ensuring] human development,” he added. Meanwhile, he said that while the existing CPS was focused on infrastructure development, this new CPS will still include infrastructure but will incorporate competitiveness in these projects. Infrastructure, he said, will continue to be the second priority in ADB’s engagement with the Philippines in the next five years as this remains a “work in progress.” The CPS will also be guided by the Philippine Development Plan and the AmBisyon2040, which outlines the country’s development priorities and goals, including those on infrastructure. “The current CPS had a very strong focus on infrastructure [since] we engaged with the Build Build Build program almost from the outset and now with the Build Better More program,” Ramachandran said.
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ADB Chief Economist Albert Park and ADB Senior Economist Aiko Kikkawa participate in the Asian Development Policy Report press briefing held on May 2, 2024, in Tbilisi, Georgia. CAI ORDINARIO
TBILISI, Georgia - The Philippines's transition to an upper middle income country must not cause social and economic injustice as well as environmental degradation, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
By Cai U. Ordinario
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“I think the hallmark, if you like, of the current CPS [is] a number of flagship projects were supported under that. In the upcoming CPS we’ll continue that because we see this as very much a work in progress so we need to make sure that is continued,” he added.
Nature-based solutions
THE third pillar or green pillar is nature-based solutions and disaster resilience. Earlier, Ramachandran said this will focus on climate change-related efforts. These efforts, Ramachandran earlier said, will include financing urban mobility, flood resilience, connectivity, and river basin projects. The cross-cutting priorities, meanwhile, will include harnessing the digital transformation potential of the Philippines. Ramachandran said this will also be crucial in mainstreaming gender. Climate-change efforts will also be embedded across the whole CPS. He said this will allow the country to meet its green ambitions. Engaging the private sector is also another cross-cutting priority given the need for a whole-of-society approach to address the country’s development challenges in the medium term.
BILISI, Georgia—Loneliness caused by their physical limitations, fewer children, and the changing lifestyles of children have inflicted pain on a third of senior citizens across Asia and the Pacific, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In a recent briefing in this city on its latest Asian Development Policy Report that focused on aging in the region, ADB Chief Economist Albert Park said loneliness can be caused by a host of factors, and this highlights the need for governments to invest in areas such as health and community care strategies. Based on the report, the share of older people showing elevated depressive symptoms in survey responses was 31 percent on average in the region. Seniors who exhibit these symptoms in the Philippines are mostly women rather than men. “I think there’s many things going with the cause of loneliness. One thing is that people are just getting older and so you’re seeing more widowers and widowed people, and so people are more likely to spend more years living alone. And that’s going to be lonely. But I think also it is the changing nature of family relationships,” Park said in a briefing. “Part of that is also demographics, that there are fewer kids. So fewer potential people to live with or to talk to, especially when they’re busy. We also, of course, live in modern societies, modern lifestyles, where sometimes kids are migrating away to work and older folks are spending and so that’s a big part of that,” he added. During the briefing, ADB Senior Economist Aiko Kikkawa said many members of the older population also feel lonely because of their physical limitations or Activity of Daily Living (ADL) that are associated with aging, followed by the prevalence of diseases which are mostly non-communicable diseases. In the Philippines, some 18 percent of seniors need help with daily routines such as food preparation. The ADB said that overall, functional impairment rises steeply for both genders in very old age, especially in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, indicating greater care needs for very old women. “If the person loses the ability to walk, that really is the major cause. And you can’t do anything about it, right? So those physical conditions leading to loneliness, we find, is a major reason. And that’s why we feel that health is the most fundamental to all that well-being and all that reason,” Kikkawa said.
One-third of elderly Pinays
IN the Philippines, the data showed nearly a third of women aged 80 and over feel elevated depressive symptoms. This is the highest as the percentage of women who feel lonely increased over time from just below 30 percent among those aged 60 to 64 years old. However, based on the report, only about 20 percent of women aged 75 to 79 years old experience depressive symptoms. The data showed, meanwhile, that among the 80 and over year olds, less than 30 percent of men experience depressive symptoms, while around 10 percent of those aged 60 to 65 years old experience loneliness. Based on the data, ADB said the percentage of older people in Bangladesh with elevated depressive symptoms is 6 percentage points higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and in Malaysia 3 Continued on A2
Demographic potential
IN terms of human capital, Ramachandran said the CPS aims to help the country tap its “nascent” demographic potential owing to its young and educated population. This means, under this pillar, the ADB will help the country address educational challenges, in-
IN this October 6, 2020, file photo, Brix and Jed Callapatia, Grade 9 and 7 students in Las Piñas, gather in a small alley to access a reliable internet signal for their school modules. The struggles with poor internet connectivity highlight the challenges faced in online classes due to the new blended learning system amid the coronavirus pandemic. NONIE REYES
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 57.5840 n JAPAN 0.3746 n UK 72.1931 n HK 7.3694 n CHINA 7.9701 n SINGAPORE 42.5194 n AUSTRALIA 37.7981 n EU 61.7646 n KOREA 0.0422 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.3537 Source: BSP (May 3, 2024)