World Bank to extend housing aid to Philippines
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The World Bank has considered extending technical and financial assistance to help the Philippines reach its housing targets, Vice President Jejomar Binay, also the chairman of the Philippines' Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, said yest
Binay attended the 5th Global Housing Finance Conference in Washington DC and met with World Bank executive director Rogerio Studart last week.
He said he was glad to announce that the World Bank “has acted positively on our requests and that steps will be taken to see to their immediate implementation”.
“I encouraged the World Bank to consider extending both technical assistance and financial assistance to the Philippines, namely in the implementation of our programme to build sustainable housing communities,” Binay said.
He said the assistance will be allocated for the construction of housing communities in Muntinlupa, Quezon City, San Miguel New Town and Mandaluyong.
The technical assistance, Binay said, was sought for the improvement of the loan programme for the homeless poor, and for the formulation of a policy that will encourage rural banks to open a special window on housing and micro finance.
Seeking investment from Malaysia
Together with 35 business leaders from the Philippines, Binay was also in Malaysia from May 27 to 29 in a mission to secure interest from the Malaysian business community in exploring more investment opportunities in the Philippines, specifically in agriculture and agribusiness, housing, finance tourism and infrastructure.
From 2005 to 2010, Malaysian investments in the Philippines reached US$203.03 million (Bt6.43 billion).
