The Philippines will repay through 2041 an $800-million loan from the World Bank aimed at strengthening the country’s fiscal resilience, attracting higher-quality private investments, and equipping workers with skills for more productive and higher-value jobs.

Documents showed that Finance Secretary Frederick D. Go, on behalf of the Philippine government, signed on May 4 the loan agreement for the Philippines Growth and Jobs Development Policy Loan (DPL), which the Washington-based multilateral lender green-lit back in March.

World Bank division director for the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei Zafer Mustafaoğlu signed the same agreement earlier on March 15, just days after the lender’s board approved the financing last March 12.

The loan was denominated in Japanese yen, equivalent to nearly ¥123.1 billion.

While this loan financing will close in mid-2027, principal repayment will begin in September 2029 and end in March 2041.

Since this is a DPL, the Philippines was required to implement reform measures under three pillars before the loan proceeds could be released: strengthen fiscal management, enhance opportunities for private investment and innovation, as well as build labor force capabilities.

Under the first pillar, the government strengthened fiscal management by expanding tax collection through a 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on foreign digital service providers (DSPs), standardizing property valuation to boost local government revenues, and streamlining public procurement processes to improve efficiency and value for money.

Through the second pillar, the government sought to boost capital market investments by reducing trading costs under the recently enacted Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act (CMEPA), while expediting the registration of foreign and domestic corporations through specialized investment registration units and a fully digital, paperless registration platform under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

For the third pillar, the government aimed to reduce job-skills mismatch and improve workforce readiness by streamlining enterprise-based training regulations under the Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) Framework Act, while addressing learning gaps through the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program and strengthening early childhood education through formal training and regularization of early years workers under the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) System Act.