On behalf of the German Government, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) has been implementing projects to promote economic, ecological and social development in the Philippines for more than thirty years. Most measures are commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Some are also implemented on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and international clients including the European Union.

The German Government, represented by BMZ, has agreed on the following priority areas for development cooperation in conjunction with the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) of the Philippines:

• Environment 
• Sustainable economic development 
• Conflict transformation and crisis prevention
• Decentralisation (a cross-cutting issue).

German development cooperation in the Philippines focuses on the Visayas archipelago and the region of Caraga on the island of Mindanao.

A number of regional supra-national projects and programmes are based in the Philippines and are managed by GTZ from Manila. They include Promotion of Economic Cooperation in Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia- Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) and Support for the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity.

May 2010