Xinhua, Manila :
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is exploring the possibility of local currency financing and a variable spread facility in providing loans to help fund the “Build, Build, Build” program of the Philippine government.
Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said in a statement released on Thursday that the AIIB is eyeing possible co-financing arrangements with other multilateral institutions in implementing big-ticket infrastructure projects under the “Build, Build, Build” initiative.
In a meeting at the AIIB headquarters in Beijing last week, Dominguez said AIIB top officials led by its president Jin Liqun also assured Philippine officials that the AIIB will focus on “the actual work” in implementing infrastructure projects to ensure that they get completed on schedule without any hidden or added costs.
Dominguez quoted Jin in the statement as saying the AIIB is highly responsive to the needs of its borrowers, which is why it is willing to study flexible financing schemes in extending loans for infrastructure projects.
The AIIB’s first project with the Philippines, which was approved on Sept. 27, 2017 is the 500-million U.S. dollar Metro Manila Flood Management Project, which it is co-financing with the World Bank.
It will focus on about 56 potentially critical drainage areas with an approximate land area of 11,100 hectares or over 17 percent of the total area of Metro Manila. This will include an area with a total population of about 970,000 people or about 210,000 households.
Apart from it, the AIIB has also shortlisted several Philippine projects, including the Pasacao-Balatan Tourism Coastal Highway, and the Camarines Sur Expressway for possible financing.
Dominguez also cited the reforms in the budgeting system now being put in place to ensure that public funds are well spent, and the Philippines’ decreasing debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of which foreign obligations now account for only 23 percent of GDP.
He said the country’s current debt-to-GDP ratio of 42 percent is expected to decline further to 38 percent by 2022.
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is exploring the possibility of local currency financing and a variable spread facility in providing loans to help fund the “Build, Build, Build” program of the Philippine government.
Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said in a statement released on Thursday that the AIIB is eyeing possible co-financing arrangements with other multilateral institutions in implementing big-ticket infrastructure projects under the “Build, Build, Build” initiative.
In a meeting at the AIIB headquarters in Beijing last week, Dominguez said AIIB top officials led by its president Jin Liqun also assured Philippine officials that the AIIB will focus on “the actual work” in implementing infrastructure projects to ensure that they get completed on schedule without any hidden or added costs.
Dominguez quoted Jin in the statement as saying the AIIB is highly responsive to the needs of its borrowers, which is why it is willing to study flexible financing schemes in extending loans for infrastructure projects.
The AIIB’s first project with the Philippines, which was approved on Sept. 27, 2017 is the 500-million U.S. dollar Metro Manila Flood Management Project, which it is co-financing with the World Bank.
It will focus on about 56 potentially critical drainage areas with an approximate land area of 11,100 hectares or over 17 percent of the total area of Metro Manila. This will include an area with a total population of about 970,000 people or about 210,000 households.
Apart from it, the AIIB has also shortlisted several Philippine projects, including the Pasacao-Balatan Tourism Coastal Highway, and the Camarines Sur Expressway for possible financing.
Dominguez also cited the reforms in the budgeting system now being put in place to ensure that public funds are well spent, and the Philippines’ decreasing debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of which foreign obligations now account for only 23 percent of GDP.
He said the country’s current debt-to-GDP ratio of 42 percent is expected to decline further to 38 percent by 2022.
