ADB earmarks $3.8-B loan window for PH

The Asian Development Bank has allotted a $3.8-billion loan window for the Philippines in the next three years to support the Duterte administration’s plan to ramp up infrastructure and socioeconomic development, the Department of Finance said.

In a statement, the DOF cited a report of its International Finance Group (IFG) noting that the Manila-based multilateral lender’s Country Operations Business Plan (COBP) for the Philippines had programmed $3.8 billion in loans on top of the $21.8 million earmarked for non-lending programs for 2018 to 2020.

The DOF-IFG said the ADB’s 2018-2020 COBP for the Philippines “will focus on three priority areas, of which $1.8 billion or 47.4 percent of the proposed funds will go to infrastructure development; about $1.5 billion or 39.5 percent to education and skills development, access to finance, expanded social protection and employment opportunities for the youth, and $500 million or 13.1 percent to programs on good governance and finance.”

Of the loan pipeline, 61 percent will be for project loans while the remainder was intended for program loans.

In its recent report to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, the DOF-IFG said “the ADB has also agreed to explore co-financing arrangements with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) on the Philippines’ major infrastructure projects such as the proposed Philippine National Railways’ Malolos-Clark Railway and the PNR Commuter South Line project.”

Also, “the ADB agreed to help the Philippines beef up its capacity and readiness in handling and financing infrastructure projects, particularly on the construction of the country’s railways,” the DOF-IFG added.

Among the specific projects covered by the ADB loan program were the Central Spine Roll-On/Roll-Off project as well as the Mindanao River Basin Flood Control project, the DOF-IFG said.