World Bank vice president for East Asia and the Pacific region Jim Adams capped his visit to Manila by expressing strong support for the Aquino Administration’s good governance and poverty reduction agenda.

Adams was on a two-day visit in Manila to engage in a dialogue with President Benigno S. Aquino III and other government officials on the new government’s priority development programs and how the  World Bank could support these initiatives.

He also met with some representatives from civil society to discuss how the Bank could work with them on initiatives that support the new Administration’s focus on poverty reduction and anti-corruption.

Conveying World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick’s congratulatory message to President Aquino, Mr. Adams said that the Bank is “impressed by the President’s platform of good governance, improved investment climate, better education and health, and access to justice.”

“Our country assistance strategy for the Philippines, titled Making Growth Work for the Poor, is very much aligned with the President’s platform, and we are looking forward to supporting the Administration in realizing its objectives,” said Adams.

Adams also commended President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), saying that the implementation of the country’s national household targeting system by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will provide the government a uniform, objective, and transparent criteria for selecting the poor for social protection and other social welfare programs.

“An effective national household targeting system would ensure that social protection programs and pro-poor services like education and health would reach the poorest of the poor as well as prevent scarce government resources from leaking to the better off,” said Adams.

Adams also said that tapping the resources and energy of the private sector through carefully designed public-private sector partnerships’ as mentioned in the President’s SONA would go a long way in achieving the country’s goal of making growth more inclusive.