Cabinet officials meet with Japan delegation for rail ODA funding

CABINET members in charge of the economy and infrastructure met with Japanese officials yesterday evening for the second Philippines-Japan Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation, to prepare Japan-funded infrastructure projects ahead of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit in November for signing ceremonies.

The Philippine delegation is headed by Department of Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, while Dr. Hiroto Izumi, the special advisor to Mr. Abe, will represent Japan.

This is the second meeting of the committee, with the first one in Tokyo in March.

Mr. Dominguez said that the meetings, which started last night and will resume today, will seek to move forward from the previous meeting, where the government presented its proposed priority infrastructure projects to be funded by Japan’s pledged $9 billion worth of Off icial Development Assistance (ODA).

“Basically we meet with our Japanese counterparts who are funding part of the ‘build, build, build’ program and we have met with them in Tokyo. Now the meeting will be here in Manila. So we will just review the projects that they have offered to fund those projects,” he said during a briefing at Malacañang.

The two countries will sign a memorandum of cooperation this morning at the Bureau of the Treasury, and will be followed by a news conference at 2 p.m.

The Philippines secured the $9-billion ODA commitment during President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s threeday visit to Tokyo in October.

Mr. Dominguez did not provide a full list of projects being put up for Japan ODA financing, but he noted that some of these include the P255billion Manila-Clark railway project and part of the P230- billion Mega Manila subway that runs to Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

“Some of the major projects that they are funding are the Manila to Clark commuter railway system that will also extend down to Los Baños or Calamba. So that will be a total of 127 kilometers,” he said.

“They also expressed interest in funding the subway project which will run from the NAIA through the FTI (the Food Terminal, Inc. site in Taguig) and all the way up to the northern triangle. So those are two large projects that they are funding and their status will be deliberated upon these next few days,” Mr. Dominguez added.

Mr. Dominguez said earlier that the government will prioritize funding from ODA and the budget to fast- track project implementation. Private concessions are estimated to take about 29 months before starting.

Asked whether the government will pitch more projects for Japan ODA financing Mr. Dominguez replied: “No, we want to finish the ones that are in the pipeline first, so that we don’t get distracted.”

According to Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, who is also part of the economic team, the second meeting will likely iron out the list of the infrastructure projects that will be signed when Mr. Abe arrives in Manila for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and other meetings on Nov. 10-14.

“This is preparatory for the arrival of the Prime Minister for the ASEAN (meetings). It’s where they will sign (the project agreements),” Mr. Diokno told reporters on the sidelines of an infrastructure forum yesterday in Makati City.

“...It will tackle specifics. There’s no final signing yet, since usually it is done in front of both heads of state,” he added.