By Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson, Senior Reporter
MILAN, Italy — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is eyeing to extend about $4 billion in financing for the Philippines this year, which will fund key infrastructure projects like the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge and Laguna Lakeshore project.
“We’re looking at about $4 billion in lending for 2025. That’s more or less what we’re seeing as an average volume for lending over the next few years,” ADB Country Director for the Philippines Pavit Ramachandran told BusinessWorld in an interview on the sidelines of the 58th ADB Annual Meeting here.
In 2024, the multilateral bank extended a little over $6 billion to the Philippines, the second-biggest recipient of financial assistance.
The ADB earlier said it is allocating about $24 billion in lending to the Philippines from 2024 to 2029.
“We’re continuing to support these infrastructure projects. Some of these have additional tranches. We’ve got these large-scale (projects). The Malolos-Clark (railway) is one,” Mr. Ramachandran said.
Last month, the ADB approved a $1.45-billion loan for the Malolos-Clark component of the 163-kilometer (km) North-South Commuter Railway, which will connect Malolos, Bulacan with the Clark International Airport.
Aside from this, there are also upcoming additional tranches for the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge and Laguna Lakeshore Road Network project, he said.
The 32-km interlink bridge will connect the provinces of Bataan and Cavite across Manila Bay, with construction expected to start this year.
The Laguna Lakeshore project is a 37.5-kilometer expressway that will shorten travel time between Taguig City and Calamba, Laguna.
“These are programmatic investments over the course of the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) period,” Mr. Ramachandran said.
The CPS, which covers the years 2024 to 2029, is focused on human development, infrastructure, disaster resilience, and economic competitiveness, among others.
Mr. Ramachandran said there are agriculture and energy investments in the pipeline.
“We are in the process of also very advanced stages of looking at the food voucher program,” he said.
The food stamp program last month was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Board, which is now known as the Department of Economic, Planning and Development Board.
“We are targeting July for board consideration within ADB. That’s a priority project for us this year,” he added.
The program seeks to feed food-poor families with a monthly voucher worth P3,000.
Mr. Ramachandran said the ADB also has ongoing work around tax mobilization.
The bank also has an initiative aimed at further improving the ease of doing business in the country.
“That is basically about reducing red tape, streamlining business processes, using digital technology,” he added.
FOOD SECURITYADB President Masato Kanda earlier this week announced that the lender is raising its commitment to food security projects in the region to $40 billion up to 2030.
“In the Philippines, we are now seeing real interest from the government to do big transformative work around food systems,” Mr. Ramachandran said.
He said the bank is working on designing a project preparatory facility that will help prepare big-ticket initiatives in the agriculture, food, and natural resource space.
“First, we have plans around port development. I think the Department of Agriculture has ambitious plans for ports. These are roll-on, roll-off ports, fishing ports, ports for exports,” he said.
These will also cover aquaculture, large-scale irrigation, and flood disaster resilience, among others.
“We are in the process of now preparing for delivery this year a program on blue economy. This is a policy-based loan with very strong linkages to food security, just given the dependence of the coastal communities on fisheries and the aquatic environment… This will also have a biodiversity link which is also directly related to food security,” he added.
Mr. Ramachandran noted that the country has recently faced challenges with food price inflation.
“It has to be a holistic solution. It can’t only be a demand side. There’s also supply-side issues around making sure farmers have access to credit, information, insurance, technology, supporting them with irrigation systems, something that we are looking to also engage with,” Mr. Ramachandran said.
Energy is also a crucial area to alleviate many food system-related challenges.
“In the Philippines, the other challenge really is around energy and looking at the energy food nexus… We have also work that we’re doing in the energy sector to essentially help with reducing the cost of energy, ensuring stability of the grid and energy access, which will also have synergistic positive impacts on food security and the food sector.”
GROWTH CORRIDORSMr. Ramachandran also noted the significance of expanding growth corridors in the country.
About half of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is concentrated in Metro Manila and surrounding regions, he said.
“What we would like is more balanced development. I think the government is also keen on that to ensure that there’s more broad-based, inclusive development.”
“The benefits actually trickle to communities in other parts of the country. Mindanao and Visayas obviously are still lagging in terms of the poverty benefits. So, we are trying to look at what some of those future growth corridors.”
The ADB has been in discussion with the government and other stakeholders to explore what areas could “catalyze growth in terms of potential opportunities,” such as human capital.
“At the end of the day, skills and ensuring that you have the human capital base to drive growth is crucial. And, ensuring that development can be solidified in these corridors is important, particularly for these future-oriented industries,” Mr. Ramachandran said.
“These industries include semiconductors, critical minerals, the pharmaceutical sector, and renewables.”
“This will require a real ramping up in terms of skills. There’s an ambitious enterprise development plan that the government has, which we’re also engaging with to support some of these new areas and private sector-led growth in these areas.”
“Service development, or what we’re calling ‘servicification,’ around these areas is important. Because, currently, the services sector delivers a big proportion of the growth. But we’d like to also see more transition to high-value services.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Ramachandran said that the 58th Annual Meeting has been productive for the Philippines.
“I think this solidifies some of the partnership between Europe and Asia as well. This whole conference is actually, in a way, a bridge.”
He noted the development priorities raised during the meeting resonates very strongly with its efforts in the Philippines.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the country’s economic team also held the Philippine Economic Dialogue to attract investors.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for Philippines to showcase what they’ve been doing on the reform front to highlight some of their macroeconomic fundamentals. Milan is obviously a very attractive venue for investors,” Mr. Ramachandran said.