THE Japanese government will extend $100 million to the Philippine to further strengthen the country’s programs to attract investments.

A statement from the Department of Finance (DOF) said that the Philippines and the Government of Japan signed on Thursday the 7.775-billion yen (about $100 million) loan agreement to support the implementation of the Development Policy Support Program-Investment Climate Program Loan. The agreement was signed at the sidelines of the World
Bank-International Monetary Fund Annual Meeting in Tokyo, Japan.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima signed the loan agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency President Akihiro Tanaka in the presence of DOF Undersecretary Rosalia de Leon, and JICA Vice President Hiroshi Arakawa and Director General Koki Hirota.

The loan agreement aims to strengthen domestic policy to promote competitiveness and inclusive growth in three policy areas: employment facilitation; improving competitiveness; and creating of an enabling environment for private-public partnership infrastructure development.

The program loan, co-financed with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is a budgetary support financing which supports the achievements of the Philippine government covering implementation of policy reforms for the improvement of the country’s investment climate.

The loan carries has an interest rate of 1.4 percent an annum, payable in 30 years inclusive of a 10-year grace period.

The total amount of budgetary support funds when combined with the ADB’s $350-million program loan totals about $450 million.

Japan continues to be the Philippines’ top source of official development assistance, with JICA supporting loan and grant aid financing totaling to about 250 billion yen, primarily for the sectors of agriculture and agrarian reform, infrastructure, flood control, environment, climate change, Mindanao peace process, disaster risk reduction and management, and human resource development.