ODA disbursements up 3% in 9 months

The country’s official development assistance (ODA) disbursements for the first nine months of the year went up by three percent to $867 million compared to the same period the previous year, a top economic manager said.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo L. Neri said the main sources of ODA are Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Of the three, only JBIC increased its commitment to the country by 1.3 percent to $546.8 million from $539.7 million.

On the other hand, ADB cut its disbursements by more than half, registering a 59 percent drop to only $59.8 million from $144.6 million while the World Bank disbursements fell by 1.2 percent to $86 million from $87 million.

Other ODA sources increased by 136.8 percent from $73.1 million to $174.4 milloin.

As of October, total ODA loans for ongoing projects stood at $8.29 billion. JBIC financed 57 percent or $4.73 billion, 14 percent or $1.14 billion from ADB, 13 percent or $1.11 billion from the World Bank, and 16 percent or $1.31 billion from other sources.

"This indicates continuous improvement in our absorptive capacity," Neri said.

However, NEDA said the performance of the implementing agencies lagged as they disbursed only 76 percent of target ODA-assisted projects, lower when compared to last year’s 83 percent disbursement.

"Factors cited by the implementing agencies for the decline in disbursement performance include budget constraints; low demand of credits; and delayed procurement and processing of contracts/subproject preparations, awarding of contracts; delivery of equipment, acquisition of right-of-way, and submission/processing of documents to effect disbursements," Neri said.

Sixty percent of the loan commitments were allotted to National Government agencies and local government units (LGUs) while 40 percent to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs).