WB-funded project seen to reduce rich-poor gap
The $508.25-million financial package approved by the World Bank (Business, 9/1/14) will definitely go a long way in somehow alleviating the living conditions of millions of Filipinos in the countryside.
Called the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), the fund aims to improve the productivity of small farmers and fisher folk as well as their access to markets. The project is to be implemented by the Department of Agriculture.
Some worthy projects funded by international institutions in the past have had great impact on the lives of ordinary people in the far-flung provinces of the country. If the PRDP is successfully implemented by the government, the gap between the rich and the poor in the Philippines will somehow narrow down in the not-so-distant future.
—PEDRO V. REFUERZO JR.,
