PhilEXIM nets award

The Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency (PhilEXIM) has received the ADFIAP Outstanding Development Project Award for its efforts in contributing to and promoting local economic development.

The award was extended by the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP), a pan-Asian organization of more than 60 member-development financial institutions and organizations in 30 countries worldwide.

PhilEXIM president and chief executive officer Virgilio R. Angelo said the agency was honored under the local economic development category, in recognition of its successful financing of a renewable wind energy project of Northwind Power Development Corp. The project is considered a crucial undertaking in the government’s Philippine Energy Plan.

The ADFIAP has been giving out the award since 2002, in recognition of member institutions that created a development impact in their respective countries. During previous years, development financing institutions (DFIs) from China, India, Japan and the Philippines have been recipients of the ADIFIAP awards. In 2004, PhilEXIM was given the same award together with the Development Bank of Japan, for its export financing program.

The wind power project is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, and a potential model for future similar wind-turbine projects. PhilEXIM extended project financing through a $29.352-million sovereign guarantee in favor of Northwind Power’s bank creditors.

The wind power project is situated along Bangui Bay, Ilocos Norte, will have the capacity to generate 25 megawatts of power, providing clean and cheaper alternative source of energy and improving rural electrification efforts.

Angelo added that the award not only shows the agency‚s resolve to support the country’s priority sectors, but also emphasized its instrumental role on improving renewable energy development of the country.