PGMA's Speech during the Asian Bevelopment Bank (ADB) Reception

ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City

27 March 2009

Other officials of the Asian Development Bank; members of the diplomatic corps; Philippine officials; ladies and gentlemen.

I would like to thank ADB, indeed for this very first ADB Reception. It’s a great occasion to celebrate what President Kuroda said, “it’s our strong relationship.”

On a personal note, I am proud to recall that it was in my father’s administration that ADB started building its main headquarters here in the Philippines. I remember how hard my father worked for that and he provided valuable land in Roxas Boulevard in order to make sure that ADB would make its home in the Philippines.

Since then, ADB’s financial and technical assistance for the development of Asia-Pacific has touched millions of lives in the region. And to date has even become more valuable as we strive to shield our peoples from the global economic downturn.

We must continue to focus here at home on creating jobs and keeping prices low. The government must provide incentives to help the private sector to keep and create jobs. The government must also continue to come to the rescue of the poorest among us with targeted subsidies of food, fuel and rice.

How do we fund all this? Before going to the ADB for technical assistance or loans, we must first and foremost, “cut government waste.”

In challenging economic times, the government must tighten its belt and live within its means, just like the average Filipino household. To that end, our government is taking a series of actions to stop unnecessary and wasteful spending. The taxpayers deserve no less from their government and public servants.

I have instructed all national government agencies, including Government Owned and Controlled Corporations to reduce their Maintenance, Overhead and Operating Expenses by 1.5%. This translates to a saving of P7 billion.

I have directed national agencies to save fuel and electricity. Our target: bring down the use of fossil fuels by 25% and reduce electric consumption by at least 10%. National agencies must turn off their airconditioners at 4:30 p.m., except those with 24-hour work; and they use fluorescent rather than incandescent bulbs. If all bulbs in the country were to shift to flourescent, we could save P2 billion. And I thank the ADB for supporting this endeavor.

Twenty percent of national government vehicles in major cities shall be converted to non-fossil fuel users. Government vehicles not on official trip shall be garaged in the agency office and the keys kept by guards during weekends and holidays. And this Independence Day, we will save the diplomatic corps including President Kuroda of the need to go to Luneta to watch a P30 million parade because instead we will hold a mega-jobs fair so that the 46,000 workers in the export sector displaced by the global crisis can be matched to the jobs that are certainly still available.

In this regard, I was happy to hear for Indophil that rather than laying off workers, they’re looking for additional workers, so certainly jobs are still available. The government must pour all savings and revenue into programs that help the poor and the middle class. This includes more and more investments in education, healthcare and infrastructure. And we must all support programs for providing meals for our children. This is part of ourtemplate -- our formula that has contributed to the drastic reduction in our hunger rate this past few months. And of course, it is summer time, graduation time, we must also work hard to provide job and training opportunities for our young graduates.

To keep our economy and way of life going strong, we must tackle many challenges at once. On the part of government. We must live within our means and run a lean, efficient government. This includes fiscal prudence not only on the part of government, national government but also local governments. I just come back from Mindanao where I spoke in Davao before the Board Members of the Philippines, those who make the loss in the provincial governments. And I told them about our cost-saving measures and they have said that they will replicate this same measures by legislating belt-tightening measures in their own provinces. This is very welcome as we in the national government undertake efforts to work towards a balanced budget. And I’m glad that Secretary Teves just walk in because that is his important task together with our Secretary of the Budget. All the while, we must also simultaneously invest in key programs for our people.

And here, we thank the ADB for your support for our key programs. President Kuroda enumerated the many kinds of programs that you have provided for us, your assistance you have given which has benefited the urban and the rural poor of Tawi-Tawi to Cagayan Valley with projects ranging for so many all those things that President Kuroda mentioned. But I would also like to thank not only the institutional ADB but also ADB and its staff for giving a lot of attention to Metro Manila with your community projects and welfare assistance.

International financial institutions like the ADB had a particular significance during this global economic downturn, orienting your financial products to be more responsive to countries vulnerable to the crisis and using all your resources to mobilize rapid assistance. And given the magnitude of the global downturn, all multilaterals should come together to provide counter-cyclical financing as other sources might begin to dry up.

And we count on you for your technical assistance and support to share knowledge and experiences on how different countries are responding to the crisis. We also count on you and we will be seeing President Kuroda in Thailand in the East Asian Summit soon, we count on the ADB to help strengthen ASEAN’s surveillance activities which is so important for our region’s economic resiliency.

To do all that you have been doing and to do what has to be done, in order that our region should continue to be resilient in the face of the global economic downturn, I agree that ADB should be well-equipped in its participation in the world’s efforts to address the global crisis. So we support what President Kuroda expressed as his wish in his all remarks the capital increase of the bank, you have our support there Mister President. (applause) And because we cannot temporize, we call for its finalization by the Annual Meeting this coming May.

You helped us strengthen our economies, strong economies interacting together will bring about a comprehensive strength for the region that will be greater than the sum of our individual national strengths. And for this, we look forward to the ADB in the many years to come to continue to forge partnerships to strengthen our respective national economies and thereby to strengthen the
economy of the whole Asian Region.

To ADB, thank you for all that you have been over this more than 40 years to the Philippines, to the region and therefore to the world.

Congratulations, Mabuhay and thank you.

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