THE Philippines and Japan on Monday signed a JPY 30 billion loan agreement that aims to help disaster-hit areas recover faster from calamities.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Senior Vice President Nakazawa Keiichiro signed the loan agreement of the Post Disaster Stand-by Loan Phase 3 in Tokyo.
The loan supports swift recovery after natural disasters by promoting policy actions on disaster risk reduction and management, and strengthening disaster preparedness by providing funds that can be released quickly.
The loan agreement was signed during the 14th Philippines-Japan High-Level Joint Committee Meeting on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation, where the two countries review the key accomplishments of their bilateral cooperation.
Japan is the Philippines’s largest Official Development Assistance (ODA) provider of loan and grant commitments, amounting to around $12.92 billion–about 40.5 percent of the country’s total ODA portfolio.
Japan also funded key railway projects in the country, like the North-South Commuter Railway Project and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 Rehabilitation Project. All in all, their financing for Philippine railway projects has reached JPY 394.4 billion.
JICA is also currently supporting the implementation of 28 ongoing loans with the Philippine government.(ABS-CBN News)
