Philippines: Increasing Competitiveness for Inclusive Growth Program (Subprograms 1 and 2)

The program was formulated to support the government’s efforts to generate employment by increasing competitiveness in the economy, and by promoting regulatory efficiency, competitive logistics and private sector participation in infrastructure with the help of public–private partnership (PPP). As a policy-based loan, the program consisted of two subprograms (SP1 and SP2). SP1 supported the government’s structural policy reforms to promote competitiveness, create an efficient market for infrastructure projects through PPPs, and promote competitive labor markets. SP2 built on the reforms under SP1, with the main focus on implementing policy reforms through pilot projects to demonstrate reform impact.3 These pilot projects sought to provide job placement assistance to young people, and the PPP tourism skills development program to upgrade the skills and services of workers in the tourism industry.

This report validates the completion report’s assessment of the program. IED overall assessment: Highly successful.