Andres Bonifacio College

ABCollege invites ADB Adviser as Commencement Speaker

ABCollege invites Joven Z. Balbosa, Advisor, Office of the Director General, Southeast Asia Department (SERD), Asian Development Bank (ADB) for its 73^rd Commencement Exercises on March 29, 2019.

Mr. Balbosa is among the ranks of the many Dipolognons who have made an impact in the national and international developments. His present affiliation to the Asian Development Bank is pertinent to the 73^rd Commencement Exercises’ theme “Global Development Trends: What they mean to us, to our community, and to our country.”

Seated in the Philippine capital of Manila, Asian Development Bank is an institution which gives assistance to its developing member countries through loan offerings, advisory and technical assistance, grants, and equity investments along with its vision of promoting social and economic development.

With this in mind, ABCollege hopes to impart Mr. Balbosa’s wide array of competence in economics and development to serve as an inspiration to its Class of 2019 graduates. Furthermore, through the message of Mr. Balbosa, ABCollege graduates will be inspired to cultivate their knowledge about the local economy and how institutions such as ADB can help in the improvement of our country in general, and most importantly, our province, in particular. As someone who hailed from Dipolog, and who is also connected to an institution that is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty, Mr. Balbosa can provide insights about how ABCollege’s graduates can contribute to the development of Zamboanga del Norte.

Mr. Balbosa finished his grade school education in Dipolog Pilot Demonstration School, and his secondary education in the Philippine Science High School  in Diliman, Quezon City. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics  degree in the University of the Philippines – Diliman, Quezon City. He earned his Post-Graduate Certificate in Development Economics (Merit Scholar Awardee) at the University of Colorado, Master of Arts in Development Economics (Jack Larned Prize Awardee) in Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United State of America, and Post-Graduate courses in Macroeconomic Policy (Congress of the Philippines Fellow) in Harvard Institute for International Development, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Mr. Balbosa possesses professional experiences in macroeconomics, public sector management, country strategy formulation, programming, and evaluation for over 30 years. He served as an Economist at the World Bank Group for seven years, worked in the House of Representatives, the Philippine Government, in the academe, and in private institutions like the San Miguel Corporation and Indosuez Credit Agricole. These experiences have provided him vast exposures in the fields of macroeconomic analysis, corporate strategy, equities research, governance, national budgeting, and public finance.

In 2005, he played key roles upon joining ADB, and was mostly involved in the Southeast Asia Department and at the Independent Evaluation Department. He is instrumental to the drafting and facilitating the adoption of key public sector management policies, implementing a series of high impact technical assistance and grant project to aid the Philippines and other Southeast Asian Countries, and conducting high level policy dialogues with developing member countries. In addition, Mr. Balbosa is also responsible for raising the level of cooperation and collaboration among major government institutions in Mindanao, and in expanding ADB’s overall support to the Philippines.

As someone highly knowledgeable in these areas, ABCollege believes that having Mr. Balbosa as the 73^rd Commencement Speaker is not only an honor, but also hearing his words would condition the graduating class to appreciate global and regional development while working on their nascent careers. ABCollege envisions promoting among its graduates on how economic development will help in the realization of their graduates’ attributes as they exit the portals of their Alma Mater. (Amie Rose Lacaya)

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