Japan commits P33.59 B in loans, grants

MANILA, Philippines - Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto del Rosario exchanged notes for six ODA loans amounting to 59.019 billion yen (P32.15 billion) and two grant aid projects amounting to 2.394 billion yen (P1.30 billion) last week at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Earlier, Urabe and Del Rosario exchanged notes for a grant aid project amounting to 250 million yen (P136 million). The total amount of these nine ODA projects is 61.663 billion yen (P33.594 billion).

The projects cover a wide-range of fields: infrastructure such as the Central Luzon Link Expressway Project and the arterial road bypass project along the Philippine Friendship Highway; disaster prevention such as the Pasig-Marikina River channel improvement project and the flood risk management project for Cagayan River, Tagoloan River and Imus River; agricultural development such as the national irrigation sector rehabilitation and improvement project and the Mindanao sustainable agrarian and agriculture development project.

Grant aid projects include the improvement of equipment for disaster risk management, and construction of a bridge to connect the provinces of Aurora and Quezon.

Non-project grant aid provides funds to purchase necessary industrial products to implement various projects in areas such as health, education, vocational training, etc.

These projects will support the efforts of the government in achieving inclusive growth as described in the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, from the viewpoint of achieving sustainable economic growth through improvement of investment environment, overcoming vulnerability to natural disaster and stabilization of production base.

Japan believes that these projects will strengthen not only the friendship between the peoples of Japan and the Philippines, but also the existing strategic partnership between Japan and the Philippines.