6th meeting of the
Philippines-Japan High-Level Joint Committee
on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation
November 21, 2018
Good evening,
On behalf of the Philippine delegation, I would like to welcome you to the 6th High-Level Consultative Meeting to continue discussing the progress we have made on our key infrastructure projects and how we could further enhance our bilateral cooperation.
After five meetings, I think you know everybody on this side of the table, so I don’t have to reintroduce them.
This is our sixth meeting since March 2017. Our regular meetings continue to visibly deliver positive impact on our key infrastructure projects and sectoral cooperation. I am glad to see this Joint Committee has covered and addressed many issues in such a short period of time.
During our last meeting in June this year, the Government of Japan has pledged to support the following:
i) JPY 4.376 billion supplemental loan for the New Bohol Airport Construction and Sustainable Environment Protection Project, Phase II; and
ii) JPY38.101 billion loan for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 Rehabilitation Project.
Through our close coordination and commitments to uphold our agreed expedited timeline, in a span of less than five months, we have already secured two loan agreements for both projects.
We would like to highlight that the processing time for the loan for the MRT Line 3 Rehabilitation Project is by far the shortest in history, just less than three months after the NEDA Board approval. This underscores the “Fast and Sure” approach we have adopted for our key infrastructure projects. Thank you.
Indeed, I am convinced that through our regular meetings, both governments are prompted to deliver on our commitments and are encouraged to think of more innovative measures to improve our cooperation and facilitate project implementations.
As an example, the NEDA Board has just approved the a) North-South Commuter Railway Extension Project; b) Pasig-Marikina River Improvement Channel Project (Phase IV) last week, but today, we are already signing the Exchange of Notes for the loans of the said projects. We are making a mark in the history of the Philippines-Japan partnership in development cooperation.
For today’s meeting, we will continue to discuss the various flagship infrastructure projects included in our pipeline to address outstanding issues on project preparation and implementation. We will also provide updates on the Mindanao Peace Process after the passage in Congress of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, subsequently approved by President Duterte, status of Marawi City’s reconstruction and rehabilitation, and progress on our various sectoral cooperation.
We look forward to an open, productive, and meaningful dialogue this evening.
May I now give the floor to Dr. Izumi for his opening remarks.
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