ODA loans drop slightly to $9.61B in 2010, says NEDA

 MANILA, Philippines - The country’s total official development assistance (ODA) loans amounted to $9.61 billion in 2010, slightly lower than the $9.7 billion recorded in the same period the previous year, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

The amount financed some 81 project loans amounting to $7.9 billion and 10 program loans worth $1.7 billion.

Of the different loans, 72 projects are still ongoing. Fifteen were closed while four project loans are yet to be made effective.

However, ODA disbursements posted a total of $1.59 billion in 2010 or 35 percent lower than the $2.44 billion posted in 2009, the NEDA report also showed.

The agency attributed this to low disbursements and implementation problems.

“This was a result of low disbursements registered by 24 out of 72 ongoing ODA loans due to implementation issues. Eighteen ongoing programs and project loans have disbursement rates below 50 percent. Also, compared to September 2010, total number of project loans with low disbursements increased by three,” the NEDA report said.

Of the number of loans, six ongoing program and project loans did not disburse due to suspension of project activities.

There were also other reasons for the suspension. These include national government-local government unit cost sharing issues and low demand for subprojects.

These projects include the Angat Water Utilization and Aqueduct Improvement Project, Credit Facility for the Environmental Management Project, Agrarian Reform Communities Project II, Tulay ng Pangulo sa Kaunlaran, Tulay ng Pangulo para sa Magsasaka Project and the Second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project.

In terms of disbursement rate, NEDA said disbursements reached an average of 81.47 percent in 2010, which is nine percent lower than the 90.43 percent achieved by implementing agencies in the previous year.

The disbursement ratio, or the actual disbursements to the net loan amount available during the year, went down to 30 percent from 42 percent in 2009.

Similarly, availment rate decreased to 80 percent in 2010 from 86 percent in 2009.

For project loans, availment rate went down to 76.71 percent from 80.41 percent while program loans decreased to 92 percent from 95 percent.

In terms of sources, the biggest donor of ODA as of 2010 is the Government of Japan-Japan International Cooperation Agency (GOJ-JICA), with a share of 36 percent of total ODA commitments.

This is followed by the World Bank with a 21 percent share.

These sources include Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Korea, Netherlands, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the United Kingdom.

The Asian Development Bank’s commitment share went down to 10 percent as of 2010 from 23 percent in 2009. China, meanwhile, registered a 12 percent contribution of ODA as of 2010, NEDA data also showed.