PH secures over P20-B aid from Australia
Canberra is providing Manila around P20 billion in total over the next five years to help the Philippines meet its economic goals.
“Under our strategic partnership, Australia is providing over P4 billion per year in capacity building and development support for the Philippines,” said Hae Kyong Yu, Australia’s ambassador to the Philippines.
Yu said so during the launch of the Australia-Philippines Development Partnership Plan (DPP) 2024-2029 on Thursday.
Of the said amount, about P3.6 billion is official development assistance to the Philippines.
“When you add up all of that assistance that we’ve provided to the Philippines over the last 20 years, it adds up to a whopping P63 billion,” Yu added.
She added that aid allocations for the Philippines are expected to go up for the next five years.
The partnership plan aims to help the Marcos administration’s goals under the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.
“The DPP is there to assist the Philippine government and the Philippines to achieve the ambitious targets you have set up in all those areas in your own economic development plan,” Yu said.
Under the DPP, the Australia aims to advance shared ambitions of the two countries by establishing a new economic growth and private sector development program, supporting the peace-building in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, growing investment in climate change adaptation and mitigation, intensifying efforts to promote gender equality, disability equity, rights of indigenous peoples and social inclusion, improving job readiness of young Filipinos, and civil maritime cooperation.
“The DPP has three broad objectives through which we want to look at our program work with the Philippines,” Yu said.
“First one is to support stability. And under that, some of the main areas that we are looking to prioritize in consultation and with agreement by the Philippine government are civil maritime security,” Yu added.
Among the objectives highlighted by the DPP is to promote prosperity, which includes fostering inclusive and sustainable economic growth in both countries, as well as strengthening resilience through social protection and disaster risk reduction efforts.
Yu also noted that the Australian government is focused on encouraging investment in the Philippines and increasing trade activities.
To this end, Australia has implemented an economic strategy for Southeast Asia that will guide their efforts through 2040.
