PH, Japan sign P75.5B loans

- Advertisement -

The Philippines and Japan signed two loan agreements yesterday worth a combined P75.5 billion (154 billion yen) for two big-ticket projects under the Build, Build, Build program, the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement yesterday.

Carlos Dominguez, DOF secretary, and Eigo Azukizawa, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) chief representative, signed the agreements for the P57 billion (119 billion yen) loan to support the construction of the Cebu-Mactan Fourth Bridge and the Coastal Road Construction Project in the Visayas, and the supplemental financing of P18.5 billion (35 billion yen) for the Davao City Bypass Construction Project.

The officials cited the significance of the signing of the loans noting how the projects can contribute to the economic recovery of the country amidst the pandemic.

- Advertisement -

The loans for these projects both carry highly concessional lending terms of 0.1 percent interest rate per year for non-consulting services and 0.01 percent for consulting services, with a maturity period of 40 years inclusive of a 12-year grace period.

The Cebu-Mactan Fourth Bridge and the Coastal Road Construction Project is the biggest infrastructure project in the Visayas under the Build, Build, Build program with a total estimated cost of P76.4 billion.

JICA has committed to fund 75 percent of the total cost of the project through official development assistance financing, while the remaining 25 percent will be covered by local financing.

This project aims to improve the capacity of the existing road network connecting mainland Cebu and Mactan Island, to facilitate the faster movement of trade and people between the two areas.

The Davao City Bypass Construction Project, meanwhile, is expected to reduce congestion in Davao City and improve accessibility to its major development hubs.

The P18.5 billion loan agreement signed for the project is supplemental to the loan accord worth P9.27 billion signed in 2015.

At the press conference held via Zoom after the signing, Mark Dennis Joven, DOF undersecretary, said that for the year, around $1.5 billion in loans has been extended by JICA so far to the Philippines, including the newly signed loan agreements.

“On top of this, we have a pipeline of around $2.35 billion for the year, which includes both program loans and project loans from JICA,” Joven said.

In the same briefing, Dominguez said aside from the Build, Build, Build program, the government is also looking at the agriculture sector as part of its bounce back initiatives from the crisis brought by the COVID-19.

“The lockdown in the agriculture sector has not been as severe as in the manufacturing and assembly sectors because they are mostly in areas that have very, very low or non existent COVID-19 cases,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez meanwhile was also asked on the collected revenue for May. He said based on preliminary data, the bureaus of Internal Revenue and of Customs’ collections for the month are around 50 percent lower than last year’s level, still due to the imposed quarantine measures to address the spread of COVID-19.

“(The numbers) are quite bad, mainly because our tax deadlines have been postponed.

However, we expect to catch up by the end of the deadline, which is the end of this month,” Dominguez said.

In a related development, Dominguez said in a Viber message to reporters yesterday the sale of government assets is not being considered to help fund the government’s COVID-19 response.

The finance chief said this after he was asked if the government is looking into asset sales, following President Duterte’s statement last night that there are no more funds and that he will look for money to buy transistor radios for distance learning, to be distributed all over the country.

Author

- Advertisement -

Share post: