The new modern public market and passenger terminal in Calapan City won the Outstanding Development Projects award for 2010 by the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP).

Funded by the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, the new public facilities serve as a vital agri-business trading hub in Oriental Mindoro, considered as Southern Luzon’s food basket.

The new facilities now accommodate the produce and services offered by entrepreneurs, farmers and fisherfolk in the province and help sustain the development momentum of the province’s capital.

Meanwhile, ADFIAP also gave recognition to two other Landbank-funded infrastructure projects: the concreting of various farm-to-market roads in Abra in the Cordillera Administrative Region, and the rehabilitation of the Municipal Water Supply Distribution System in Bolinao, Pangasinan.

Over the years, Landbank has been aggressively extending credit support to the local government units (LGUs).

“The ADFIAP Award re-affirms the strong partnership of Landbank and the LGU sector towards the pursuit of a common thrust of promoting a vibrant rural economy,” Landbank president and CEO Gilda E. Pico said.

The ADFIAP award recognizes and honors institutional members which have undertaken and assisted projects that have created development in their respective countries. ADFIAP is the focal point of all development banks and other financial institutions engaged in the financing of development in the Asia-Pacific region. Founded in 1976, its mission is to advance sustainable development through its 120 member-institutions in 43 countries.