Philippines pushes for greater MSME access to finance and development of APEC catastrophe bond market

March 4 – The APEC Business Advisory Council Philippines (ABAC PH) led by Joanne de Asis and Guillermo Luz participated in the first ABAC meeting for 2019, held on 1-4 March in Atlanta, Georgia. ABAC PH took part in dialogue with APEC Senior Officials and led the discussion on catastrophe bonds.

Discussions with senior officials zeroed in on bringing MSMEs into global value chains and enhancing their access to finance, developing an enabling ecosystem for data flows while strengthening data privacy, and supporting the multilateral trading system. On access to finance, Philippines Senior Official Ambassador Leo Herrera-Lim shared the use of microfinance as a tool for empowering entrepreneurs especially women in business as it requires no collateral and repayment goes high as 99%. With regards to building sustainable communities, the Ambassador noted the changing weather patterns causing significant damage to the economy and to traditional farming practices. More needs to be done to ensure the welfare of impacted communities.

Ms. De Asis introduced the topic of catastrophe bonds (catbond) in the Finance and Economic Working Group meeting, noting its potential significant impact for disaster-prone economies such as the Philippines and the rest of APEC. ABAC PH invited World Bank experts in a special session in ABAC 1 to discuss the bond structure in detail, following the experience of the Pacific Alliance catbond.