After signing the second tranche of the loan agreement for the Meto Manila Subway Project, the Philippines and Japan will hold an important infra meeting this week.
The Department of Finance (DOF) said the Philippines and Japan are scheduled to hold a ‘high-level’ meeting focused on infrastructure development and economic cooperation.
On February 10, DOF and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) inked a new loan agreement for the second tranche of funding for the construction of the Metro Manila Subway.
The first was signed in March 2018 and amounted to 104.53 billion yen (around P46 billion), while the latest loan is an additional 253.3 billion Japanese yen (over P111 billion).
“Soon, Japan’s tunnel boring machines will start excavating under the Metro Manila area in the 2nd quarter of this year,” the announcement read.
According to the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the project’s chief implementing agency, funding from Japan will come in three or four more trenches and is subject to further discussions.
“This second tranche loan is not only representative of the headway that this flagship project has achieved, but also an evidence of the Philippine Government’s solid commitment to expanding railway infrastructure and enhancing the country’s connectivity under its Build Build Build program,” said JICA Chief Representative AZUKIZAWA Eigo.
On Monday (February 14), DOF announced that the committee will be holding a meeting this February 16 to discuss progress on the Japan-supported big-ticket projects.
Such projects include the Metro Manila Subway Project, the North-South Commuter Railway Project, the rehabilitation of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3, Dalton Pass East Alignment Road, Central Mindanao Highway, and the Parañaque Spillway.
The first meeting was held back in Tokyo in 2017 after the former Prime Minister Shizo Abe committed to providing about $9 billion to the Philippines over the next 5 years.
The DOF said the commitment was completed in July 2021.
Tags: #Japan, #JapanInternationalCooperationAgency, #DepartmentOfFinance, #infrastructure, #economy, #MetroManilaSubway