De Ocampo began his career in public service in 1972. He pioneered the rural electrification program. He was then recognized as the youngest administrator in the history of the national government and received the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM) award in 1975. After working as a senior loan officer at the World Bank, he was appointed chairman and CEO of the
Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in 1989. Under his leadership, the DBP won national and international recognition and was named "the world's second soundest bank" by
The Banker magazine. For his groundbreaking initiatives in the field of development banking, he was presented with the very first "Man of the Year Award" by the Association of Development Finance Institutions in the Asia-Pacific (ADFIAF) in 1997. As Secretary of Finance, de Ocampo introduced and implemented a number of important policies and measures, particularly in the areas of
economic liberalization, privatization and tax reform. This resulted in the Philippines’ return to international capital markets after a decade-long absence, the first fiscal surplus in twenty years, and an unprecedented and sustained combination of healthy economic growth, low interest rates and single-digit inflation. The liberalization of the banking and insurance industries opened up these sectors to foreign investment and marked the exit of the Philippines from a nearly continuous thirty years of IMF economic rehabilitation and reform programs. ==Awards==