Japan vows same level of commitment to Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — The Japanese government has assured the Philippines that its level of commitment in terms of development cooperation to the country remains the same even with the change in administration.

Officials from both countries recently met for the 13th Philippines-Japan High-Level Meeting of the Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno chaired the meeting.

During the meeting, Mori Masafumi, who serves as special advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan, said the Asian neighbor’s commitment to the Philippines remains unchanged under the Marcos administration.

Diokno, for his part, emphasized that Japan and the Philippines have built strong economic, political, and cultural ties over the past decades.

Diokno told the Japanese delegation that the government would focus on high public infrastructure spending to stimulate growth, maintaining expenditure at five to six percent of gross domestic product per year.

To meet the infrastructure spending requirements, the government aims to encourage more solicited public-private partnership projects, and provide support to local government units to effectively increase their share in infrastructure spending.

Diokno maintained that a clear process in both the provision and acceptance of grants for Japan-supported projects should be strictly held in place.

The high-level meeting will allow the Japanese government to determine the assistance needs of the Philippines in its pursuit of upper middle-income status.

Specific priority areas of cooperation and pipeline projects will also be identified and mutually agreed upon in the next bilateral meeting, which will be hosted by Japan at a later date.

Currently, Japan is financing several big-ticket infrastructure projects such as the Metro Manila Subway, North-South Commuter Railway project, rehabilitation of the MRT-3, Dalton Pass East Alignment Alternative Road Project, Central Mindanao Highway Project, and the Parañaque Spillway, among others.

Japan is also supporting the development of the Subic Bay Masterplan and the smart city initiatives in New Clark City.

Under the previous administration, Japan’s financial contribution to the country reached 1.38 trillion yen, exceeding the one trillion yen committed by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Japan is the Philippines’ largest provider of official development assistance, committing loans and grants worth $10.2 billion, or 31.8 percent of the country’s total ODA portfolio, as of end-2021.