RP delayed in meeting MDG targets Cynthia Balana Philippine Daily Inquirer
April 21, 2009
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines’ compliance with Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets would be delayed as a result of the global financial crisis, National Economic and Development Authority Director General Ralph Recto said Monday.
“It’s possible because in the case of the Philippines, we are allocating resources particularly for the important need to invest more in hard infrastructure and human infrastructure,” Recto told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) at the Mandarin Hotel in Makati City.
But Recto said that despite some setbacks, the government was confident it would still meet those targets, saying the Philippines was faring well meeting its target with regard to poverty alleviation.
The MDGs are eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states and 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.
They include reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for development.
Recto said it was hard to put a number on how much would be lost in terms of not meeting the targets because of varying global estimates.
He said though that the government would tap all types of financing, whether from China, Japan, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund or Asian Development Bank, to finance public investment programs.
“Let’s put it this way, the global stimulus package is roughly $4 trillion, the global Official Development Assistance or ODA is about $120 billion. So all these global stimulus packages take away money from the ODA. Remember, the ODA is not free. These are loans and part of this goes to grants so you pay for this with interest,” he said.
He said that while the Philippines had been able to deliver on its MDG program targets, it would need to focus on certain “problem areas.”
The two-day Asem opened in Manila Monday with more than 100 officials from 43 countries who will seek ways by which Europe and Asia can cooperate in securing sustainable economic development in a period of global recession.
Keynote speakers included Recto, Jakub Karfik, the Czech president of the European Commission, and Koos Richelle, EC director general of the EuropeAid Cooperation Office.
Established in 1996 in Bangkok, Asem is an inter-regional forum which consists of the European Commission, the 27 members of the European Union, the 13 members of the Asean plus 3 regional grouping, and India, Mongolia and Pakistan.
