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AUSTRALIA-PHILIPPINES' NEW DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE STRATEGY LAUNCHED
Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Tony Hely and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Romulo Neri lead the Philippine launch of the new Australia-Philippines Development Assistance Strategy for 2007-2011.
The new strategy was officially launched earlier in Canberra, Australia in the presence of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard during the former’s successful state visit there.
“The Australia-Philippines Development Assistance Strategy 2007-2011 is a concrete manifestation and affirmation of Australia’s commitment to assist the Philippines in meeting its development goals, with focus on reducing poverty, enhancing economic growth and maintaining national stability. Australia’s aid program in the Philippines is significantly expanding in scale, in line with the Australian Government’s commitment to double the size of its global aid program by 2010,” Ambassador Hely said.
“Already the new Philippine program starts with a significant step up in funding in its first year of operation to over $A 100 million (Php 4 billion) in 2007-2008, an increase of 45%. And based on needs and performance, further annual increases are expected over the program’s next five years,” Ambassador Hely added.
The new program strategy puts particular emphasis on the promotion of sustainable economic growth and helping to improve Philippines competitiveness and creating an enabling environment to attract investment. The strategy will also focus on increasing access to quality basic education and on enhancing national stability and human security, including support for peace in Mindanao and strengthening preparedness and protection against disasters.
Australia works with the Philippine Government, specifically through and with NEDA, in identifying these areas of focus for the strategy as they are of high priority to the Philippines and represent areas where Australian expertise and experience will have the strongest impact.
The Australia-Philippines Development Assistance Strategy 2007-2011 strongly reinforces more than 50 years of Australian development assistance in the Philippines. Australia is one of the top five grant aid donors to the Philippines, with aid of some $A 570 million – all in the form of grant – over the past decade alone.#