“These new sources of finance allow us to expand the existing development cooperation and partnership,” UN Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Director for Asia and the Pacific Haoliang Xu said in a statement on Wednesday. “Higher growth rates, broader prosperity and more efficient tax collection have been among the factors boosting domestic resources for investment in continued progress,” the report said. “As a result, countries are designing new financing strategies that mobilize contributions from a wide range of sources, including the private sector,” UNDP said. “The transformation of development finance translates into increased demand for our services from governments in Asia-Pacific,” said Xu. “Our portfolio of government co-financed programs quadrupled over the past two years.”|UNDP’s government co-financed portfolio in Asia-Pacific currently stands at US$116 million, according to the report.

Source: Manila Times October 26, 2016 18:00 UTC