The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Philippines signed a €30-million (about 1.71 billion) worth of financing agreements with the European Union (EU) for two new programs to boost the country’s disaster preparedness and improve Bangsamoro region’s local agricultural production and investment climate.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and EU Ambassador Luc Véron exchanged the signed financing agreements that will support the “National Copernicus Capacity Support Action Programme for the Philippines,” or CopPhil and the “Bangsamoro Agri-Enterprise Programme,” or Baep.
The CopPhil is a nationwide 3-year program expected to reduce vulnerability from natural disasters while the Baep is a new 5-year program to boost local agricultural production and improve the investment climate in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm). Slated to begin this year, both programs are expected to address the most pressing needs in the country: disaster preparedness and poverty reduction and the cycle of vulnerability linking the two.
With a budget of €10 million (about P570 million), the CopPhil will support the Philippine government’s objectives of developing and leveraging space science and technology applications to strengthen the nation’s resilience to natural disasters and climate change. This is the first of its kind in the region, according to documents furnished by the Department of FInance.
The Baep, which has a budget of €20 million (about P1.14 billion), is part “of a broader EU objective of a peaceful, cohesive, secure and inclusively developed Bangsamoro.”
Both programs are also seen to contribute to the Philippines and EU’s commitment to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals to support peace, development and prosperity, reduce inequality and fight climate change.