MANILA -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday commended President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for his leadership amid the numerous “more immune and more complex challenges” faced by the country.

Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director, made the remark during a bilateral meeting with the chief executive in Davos, Switzerland.

“We found the Philippines to be an exceptionally well-performing country…what you have done in the last year of turbulence to sustain growth… is quite commendable,” Georgieva told the President.

The IMF, Georgieva stressed, expressed readiness to help its member countries, including the Philippines, in achieving sustainable growth and pushing for economic policies that would benefit more Filipinos.

“We have been really interested to engage more deeply with our members to recognize the traditional challenges…they are still there,” said Georgieva.

In the meeting, President Marcos raised the need to “go back to the basics,” noting the number of challenges faced by the country, especially in food supply.

“We also have to go back to the basics because there are weaknesses in different systems like in food supply, like in energy, infrastructure, climate change… these are the basic problems that we need to be addressing,” President Marcos said.

The chief executive also affirmed his administration’s push to scale up digitalization initiatives, which are vital in making the bureaucracy more efficient and effective.

“I hold a lot of hope and confidence in the new technologies… if you are adept with new technologies, you are already at [the] forefront… so that’s basically how we are approaching the problem,” Marcos pointed out.

The IMF, a special agency of the United Nations, focuses on promoting global monetary cooperation, ensuring financial stability and facilitating international trade, among others.

The Philippines joined the IMF on December 27, 1945.

President Marcos is in Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum’s annual event, where he showcased the Philippines’ economic achievements as well as articulated the administration’s vision as it steers the country toward recovery following the crippling impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, the President and First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos joined WEF founder and Chair Dr. Klaus Schwab and his wife, Hilde, in a private dinner.

Dr. Schwab invited President Marcos to attend the WEF during a meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits in Phnom Penh. (PND)