In the 31 July 2013 Editiorial of Manila Bulletin, the Philippine Permanent Representative, Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr. and the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mr. Kanayo F. Nwanze were lauded for their efforts in empowering rural communities in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improve food security and discussing consensus to scale-up the impact of remittances for the development of rural economies in the Philippines.
In said article, it was stated that in the recent forum of IFAD in Rome, Italy, delegates were in accord that “remittances could generate $30 billion annually for investment in rural areas if initiatives were scaled up.” The forum was a follow up to the 4th Global Forum on Remittances in Bangkok, Thailand which explored ideas to scale-up the impact of remittances for development.
At present, IFAD is promoting investments in at least 40 countries and will begin to focus on finding more strategic ways to invest the $200 billion remittances every year.
