DBP continues missionary activities

The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is supporting investments for environmental improvement among firms through its Environmental Infrastructure Support Credit Program (EISCP). This is a credit and technical assistance facility designed to assist industries in their quest for a cleaner environment while meeting business objectives of growth and cost effectivity.

Conceptualized by DBP’s Industrial Restructuring and Research Center, the EISCP gives priority to funding cleaner production while still catering to projects that are primarily end-of-pipe pollution control investments.

DBP president and chief executive officer Simon R. Paterno said that "now on its second phase funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) at 20.539 billion yen, the EISCP also funds projects that promote efficient use and/or management of natural resources such as water, energy and the ecosystems and improvement in occupational health and safety."

It is also open to other environment-enhancing projects like establishment of Environmental Management Systems, investments in equipment to monitor emissions or effluent, relocation of plants from urban to less settled areas and other environmental infrastructure projects under build-operate-transfer arrangements or its variants.

While its first phase funded at five billion yen catered only to the manufacturing sector, the second phase has added the mining and services sectors.

EISCP is available in the local currency payable for a term up to 15 years with a maximum five-year grace period. Interest payment is fixed at 12 percent per annum.