THE Philippines has signed a $600-million loan deal with the World Bank to boost the agriculture and fisheries sector in the country, the Department of Finance said yesterday.
The loan agreement is for the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Scale-Up, which aims to boost farmer and fisherfolk access to markets, increase income from selected agri-fishery value chains, and improve efficiency in the food supply chain.
The project will involve direct investments in the rural infrastructure and enterprise projects, which will directly benefit about 450,000 farmers and fisherfolk and generate about 42,000 new jobs.
It will cover 82 provinces in the Philippines.
Of the $818 million allotted for the project, $218 million will be funded by the national government and the local government units.
Once completed, the Department of Agriculture will make it a locally-funded program to ensure its sustainability.
The World Bank has been supporting the project since 2014, and has provided two additional loans in 2018 and 2021.
The World Bank’s total official development assistance loan and grant commitments is at an estimated S$7.94 billion as of July 2023. (ABS-CBN News)
