In the past few years, the government has developed and installed a unique model of performance-based budgeting known as the Organizational Performance Indicator Framework (OPIF). The OPIF demonstrates the relationship between an agency’s programs, activities, and projects (PAPs), the goods...

Establishing financially inclusive ecosystems for low-income clients, including small and medium enterprises, has become a rising global concern. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor and the World Bank estimate that around 2.7 billion adults worldwide do not have access to credit,...

The ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint targets an ASEAN single market in 2015. This is an ambitious reform agenda that seeks to ensure the free flow of services, investment, and skilled labor along with the free flow of goods and the freer flow of capital in the ASEAN region. For logistics...

The study looks at the rarely studied customs brokerage activity in the Philippines and its role in facilitating trade given the ongoing push to modernize customs administration. It analyzes how the customs brokerage profession is being regulated and synthesizes insights on opposing views on the...

This study assesses the sources and levels of infrastructure financing in the Philippines for the last five years (2008-2012). The mapping of fiscal resources showed that there had been underinvestment in infrastructure. To illustrate, in 2008-2012, public infrastructure spending as a share of...

As 2015 draws near, assessing ASEAN`s progress toward the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) defined by the AEC Blueprint is necessary and instructive. This paper constitutes the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the AEC Blueprint for the Philippines. The Philippines Country Report presents the results of...

It has only been in the recent years that developing countries are increasingly decentralizing the provision of health care to their local governments. This paper explores some key issues related to health decentralization in the Philippines identified in literature and in course of interviews...

Recent literature indicates the significant role played by rural infrastructure in improving agricultural productivity in developing economies. While the availability and quality of rural infrastructure are never substitutes to efficient macroeconomic and agriculture-specific policies and the...

The ASEAN+6 countries are currently engaged in negotiation for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). If successfully negotiated, RCEP will result into the world`s biggest trading bloc, 40 percent of world trade, that offers significant benefits to participating countries. The...

The study focuses on the transport of vegetable and fruit produce from Mindanao, a major food producing area, to particular regions in Luzon and Visayas to meet increasing market demands. The estimated gravity model showed the key determinants of interregional trade. Economic growth in both...