Press Release
November 3, 2007

Press Statement of Senator Angara

The World Bank president and a Philippine government delegation have agreed that a dynamic agricultural development agenda is the best strategy to lift close to 1 billion people across the globe from poverty and this can be carried out through an aggressive and sustained investment in the sector, Senator Edgardo J. Angara today disclosed.

Angara, who authored the law on Philippine agricultural modernization, said that in a meeting with four Filipino lawmakers at the WB headquarters in Washington D. C. , Bank President Robert B. Zoellick strongly conveyed his position that agricultural development is the key to poverty reduction and the WB is now pushing this agenda .

"WB President Zoellick is committed to give agriculture more prominence, more support, and an aggressive push within the WB ," said Angara, who with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco, Finance Secretary Margarito Tevez and Representatives Herminigildo Mandanas of Batangas and Ramon Durano VI of Cebu. met with Zoellick in Washington D.C. to discuss major initiatives in financing for development.

Angara said that Zoellick also shared the view of the Philippine government delegation that poverty would only worsen for people living on less than $1 a day if agriculture is not made the lynchpin of a sustained anti-poverty program.

"President Zoellick is focused on greater and smarter investments into agriculture and this is the current gospel of development that the WB is sharing with developing nations," said Angara , who put in place frontier programs for agriculture during his term as agriculture secretary.

Angara said that the latest WB report, which is currently being carried out by country offices of the Bank across the developing world, precisely anchors its poverty -reduction and rural development programs on an vigorous agricultural development agenda.

Angara said that the WB support to Philippine agriculture and rural development for the year would reach $3.1 billion and also noted that WB support has been increasing over the past four years to agri and rural development concerns. Support to agriculture and rural development declined in the 80s and the 90s, according to WB figures.

Among the programs with WB support are in Mindanao and Laguna de Bay, agrarian reform communities, rural financing, programs to boost diversified farm incomes and market development.

The WB has complemented its support to agriculture and rural development investments with a call for countries to cut down on their agricultural subsidies and open their markets , said Angara .

Angara has been saying that poverty has "distinct rural face" and the only way to ease the nagging poverty in the countryside is through a sustained agricultural development agenda.

Angara said that various programs should be adopted to raise the level of agricultural production and incomes and that the basic program should be anchored on agricultural research and development.

Angara was the principal author and sponsor of the Agriculture and Fishery Modernization Act, currently the blueprint for agricultural development.

The AFMA Law identified the priority investments areas and called for the allocation of at least P20 billion a year for these fresh agricultural investments.

Angara was also the driving force behind the creation of the bicameral Congressional Commission on Agricultural Modernization (AGRICOM), which studied in-depth the problems of the agriculture sector and identified reform areas to that should be undertaken to modernize the sector.

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