Japan commits P84 billion projects for Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — The Japanese government has committed P84 billion worth of projects for the Philippines until early next year, according to the Department of Finance.

The DOF said it would execute roughly 227.6 billion Japanese yen (P83.9 billion) worth of pipeline projects with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan’s bilateral aid agency, this year until early 2025.

This came after the DOF’s International Finance Group met with JICA director general of Southeast Asia and the Pacific department Hayakawa Yuho recently.

Japan also vowed to execute an annual average pipeline of about 249.2 billion Japanese yen or roughly P92.18 billion until 2027.

Four loan agreements are likewise scheduled to be signed before yearend. These will cover projects on maritime safety, roads and flood risk management.

Aside from the usual portfolio of infrastructure projects funded by JICA, the bilateral aid agency is also looking at expanding into other sectors.

These are in agriculture, education and health, which are all part of the administration’s development objectives.

Finance Undersecretary Joven Balbosa said JICA expressed openness to scale up its policy-based lending with an intent to co-finance the Climate Change Action Program (CCAP) Subprogram 2 with the Asian Development Bank and Agence Française de Développement.

The CCAP will support the Philippines in implementing its national climate policies, including its nationally determined contribution (NDC).

The program will intensify efforts to transform key sectors toward a climate-resilient and low-carbon economy.

Further, the Philippines and JICA committed to maintain an open dialogue and address any delay to improve overall project management and minimize costs to the government.

The DOF also sought JICA’s assistance in bringing in more private sector financing to support the administration’s development goals as the Philippines transitions to an upper middle income country status.

Such a status would mean that the Philippines will gradually move away from concessional financing from partners such as JICA.

Japan is the country’s largest official development assistance (ODA) partner, with $12.3 billion in net commitments of loans and grants as of end-2023.

This is 33 percent of the total ODA of the Philippines.