14 March 2016 – The Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in India attended the conference “Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future” on 11 to 13 March 2016 in New Delhi. The conference was organized by the Government of India and the International Monetary Fund.
In her opening remarks, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde praised India as the fastest growing economy with a dynamic workforce and an opportunity for real reforms. While describing that the “external environment appears dark”, she raised six ideas which could build up the inclusive growth of the region through 1) broadening access to services like health and finance; 2) leveraged impact of fiscal policy through targeted social spending on the needy, and mentioned that “the Philippines, for example, has pioneered conditional cash transfer programs;” 3) empowerment of women; 4) investing in infrastructure, health and education; 5) trade integration; and, 6) addressing climate change challenges.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the other hand spoke of the importance of Asia and how India can contribute to its growth and development. He also noted the important role of women leaders citing countries including the Philippines, which was discussed in the thematic session “Income Inequality, Demographic Change and Gender”, participated by Ms. Milwida Guevara, CEO of Synergeia Foundation Philippines.
Ms. Guevara shared the Philippines’ successes and experience in addressing these issues and highlighted that education of children is key in providing families with the tools for economic improvement.
IMF Managing Director Lagarde also awarded the two winners of the Youth Video contest which was launched in December 2015. The winners were Jayson Cantores Berto from the Philippines for “Rice Hull is Not a Waste” and Lee Kwon Kik from Hong Kong for “Wait! Gender Equality is also Important!” The contest called on young videographers aged 18-30 from selected Asia-Pacific countries to submit original videos reflecting the themes from the conference. Both winners were selected to participate in the conference and the winning videos were presented along with the other eight finalists from Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
The winning videos can be viewed on https://advancingasia.strutta.com/.
