Japan reaffirmed its strong support for the Philippines’ infrastructure program, citing the policy continuity from the Duterte to the Marcos administrations.
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuhiko Koshikawa relayed this support during a courtesy call meeting with Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
“The ambassador reiterated Japan’s continued support for the Philippines’ massive infrastructure program, the development of Subic Bay and Mindanao and other sectoral cooperation in health, energy, agriculture and ICT, among other areas,” Diokno said in a statement Friday.
Japan’s financial contribution to the Philippines’ nation-building efforts under the Duterte administration reached 1.38 trillion yen, above the 1-trillion-yen committed by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2017.
Japan is also the Philippines’ largest provider of official development assistance, with committed loans and grants amounting to around $10.2 billion, or 31.8 percent of the country’s total ODA portfolio as of December 2021.
Koshikawa said the Japanese government appreciated the continuity of the “Build, Build, Build” program under the Marcos administration. Under the government’s Medium-Term Fiscal Framework, it seeks to sustain infrastructure spending at 5 to 6 percent of GDP annually.
The Japanese government supports several big-ticket infrastructure projects in the Philippines including the Metro Manila Subway Project, North-South Commuter Railway Project, rehabilitation of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3, Dalton Pass East Alignment Alternative Road Project, Central Mindanao Highway Project (Cagayan de Oro-Malaybalay Section) and the Parañaque Spillway.
It is also supporting the development of the Subic Bay Masterplan and the Smart City initiatives in New Clark City.
Diokno credited the success of Japan and the Philippines’ infrastructure development cooperation to the efforts of both sides in conducting the regular high-level meetings.
The High-Level Meeting of the Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation became an effective mechanism of coordination that fast-tracked Japanese assistance, consistent with the “Fast and Sure” approach.
Diokno said the Philippines wanted to continue using this platform to push forward the fruition of more projects.
Koshikawa said that aside from infrastructure development, Japan is eager to strengthen cooperation in maritime security, regional development especially in Mindanao, energy, health, agriculture, space development and disaster response and management.