Thursday, January 01, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
THE Philippines seeks a billion-dollar worth of foreign aid from World Bank next year to fund social and infrastructure projects, the National Economic and Development Authority said.
Documents from the agency showed that official development assistance will be needed to implement seven projects.
The needed loans are $200 million for the Food Crisis Response Development Policy Operation; $390 million to $400 million for the National Sector Support for Social Welfare and Development Reform Project; $260 million for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 south extension project; $70.36 million for the Participatory Irrigation Development Project; $40 million in additional financing for Rural Power Project; $10 million in additional financing for Second Agrarian Reform Communities Development Project, and $17 million in additional funds for Judicial Reform Support Project.
“Three projects may be dropped from the list if there are no developments by the end of the calendar year” NEDA said.
These are the $250-million development policy project 2; the $63-million support for the National Transmission Corp.’s concession, and $18 million in additional financing for the Manila Third Sewerage Project.
Three other loans will be maintained on the list for processing in 2009, but this would depend on further developments, NEDA said.
These loans include $50 million for the Local Government Support for Local Government Units Through Performance Grants; $50 million for Support for Regional and Local Water Supply and $15.12 million for Bicol River Basin Watershed Management Project-Watershed Management and Development.
As of last year, the country’s cumulative ODA financed 125 ongoing projects for a total $9.28 billion of which $8.17 billion were project loans and $1.31-million program loans.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation continued to be the largest source of ODA, accounting for $2.5 billion of the total, followed by ADB with $2 billion, other foreign donors at $1.9 billion, and the World Bank at $1.8 billion.
The government’s total donor aid disbursement last year fell 17.9 percent to $1.62 billion from $1.97 billion in 2006.
