Abe offers ¥1-trillion aid, stronger ties
“A MUCH AWAITED REUNION” — this is how President Rodrigo R. Duterte described the official visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Philippines, which saw the signing of various agreements and the granting of a ¥1-trillion aid package to the Philippines spread over the next five years.
Mr. Abe announced the fresh aid package for the Philippines, surpassing the estimated $ 2- billion loan in 2015 that was deemed Japan’s biggest assistance then, in the first of his two-day visit here, which serves the purpose of official development assistance (ODA) to the Philippines as well as forging public-private-partnerships with Japanese firms.
“First, for the further development of the Philippines, we will create business opportunities through ODA and private sector investments which together will be of the order of one trillion yen over the next five years,” Mr. Abe told Mr. Duterte during the two leaders’ joint press statement.
“The joint committee on economic cooperation and infrastructure will be launched through which both the private and public sectors will provide a strong underpinning for nation building,” Mr. Abe added.
According to a report by the Nikkei Asian Review published yesterday that cited an anonymous “senior government official,” the new aid package for Manila is “one of Japan’s largest directed at a single country.”
“The figure tops the five-year package of roughly 800 billion yen for Myanmar announced last year,” the report read in part.
‘TWO-WAY STREET’
In a press briefing, Japanese Foreign Press Secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said the “bottom line” of Mr. Abe’s announcement is that “Japan is very eager of this cooperation for the business and the economic development of the Philippines by utilizing all those available resources.”
“At the same time, the Prime Minister underlined that this is a two-way street. This is not just a one- way of inflow of investments of money from Japan... I’d like to emphasize that a business-friendly environment on the side of the Philippines is also necessary. We’ll very much appreciate it if the Philippine officials and the private sector will cooperate with us,” Mr. Kawamura added.