"We are heavily into this," said Reynaldo G. David, DBP president and chief executive officer. "For the domestic shipping modernization program, we have around P2 billion involving 13 projects that are waiting to be drawn."
To promote the use of RRTS to domestic tourists, the state-run bank has organized a ro-ro (roll-on roll-off) race, where participants traveled from Manila to Batangas to Puerto Galera and finally Boracay. The race kicked off Wednesday simultaneously in Manila and Mindanao.
David said the race will help the bank in bringing port awareness and consciousness to the ro-ro routes. "This will ensure that the domestic tourism is also promoted," he explained.
According to him, many view the ro-ro merely as an efficient way of transporting their goods from the provinces to Manila. However, the banker said local travelers can also use the ro-ro as a cheaper alternative to airplanes when vacationing especially in beachside destinations such as Boracay in Aklan and Puerto Galera in Mindoro.
David said the bank is pushing for more developments in the ro-ro routes as it stretched the loan term.
"The financial rates are low. It’s 7.5 percent for the missionary routes and 8.5 percent for the commercial," he said.
DBP has likewise relaxed the repayment term and lengthened the grace period of borrowers.
The RRTS is part of the bank’s Sustainable Logistics Development Program. For the entire SLDP project, David said the bank has already approved for release P5 billion to fund the development.
"At this stage we have approved 204 projects," he noted.
Aside from this, the bank has also set aside P1.517 billion for its cold chain project. As of September, the development bank has approved 39 projects for processing and marketing centers, aggregating centers, reefer transport equipment, ice plant and other cold storage facilities.
The grains highway meanwhile received P1.549 billion for 152 projects including processing centers with mechanical shelling, drying and storing in bulk, bulk tracking, terminal facilities and bulk carriers.