Agencies more than double foreign loan outlays
06/03/2009 | 06:40 PM
Email this | Email the Editor | Print | ShareThisMANILA, Philippines - Government agencies more than doubled their disbursement of available foreign assistance for the first three months of the year, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) reported on Wednesday.
Manila released a total of $619 million, 145-percent higher than the disbursement level for the same period last year, NEDA said citing its Official Development Assistance (ODA) Performance Report for the first quarter of 2009.
Project loans reached $267 million while program loans were at $352 million, the NEDA’s Project Monitoring Staff said.
These data excluded projects funded by China and others, as disbursement figures have yet to be released by the Bureau of Treasury.
Disbursement level is the amount of funds released from all programs and projects funded by ODA loans, NEDA said.
ODA loans are long-term, low-interest funds lent by multilateral lenders including the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“The significant increase in disbursements was largely attributed to the single tranche release of two program loans of $150 million and $200 million funded by ADB (Asian Development Bank) and World Bank," NEDA-PMS director Roderick M. Planta said.
The two program loans which contributed to the significant increase in disbursements were Governance in Justice Sector Reform Program, Subprogram I (GJSRP) which was sourced from the ADB and The Global Food Crisis Response Program Development Policy Operations (GFRP-DPO) from the World Bank.
The GJSRP aims to support the government in its efforts to enhance the rule of law in the Philippines, improve governance and efficiency of agencies in the justice sector and expand access to justice.
On the other hand, the GFRP-DPO aims to reduce the negative impacts of high and volatile food prices by supporting the government in designing sustainable policies to mitigate these adverse impacts.
Implementing agencies achieved an average of 90 percent of their target disbursements for the period, although at an eight-percentage point decrease over the previous year’s disbursement rate of 98 percent.
Meanwhile, the PMS reported that total cumulative ODA loans amounted to $7.57 billion as of the first quarter of 2009.
This financed 87 loans consisting of $6.15 billion (81 percent) project loans and $1.42 billion (19 percent) program loans.
This represented a drop from the $9.72-billion worth of 117 ODA loans in 2008, consisting of some $7.95 billion (82 percent) project loans and $1.77 billion (18 percent) program loans.
Of the 87 programs and projects, 82 loans worth $7.3 billion were still ongoing, four were closed during the quarter while one was signed in 2007 but was yet to be made effective (Northrail Project Phase I, Section II).
Five of the ongoing loans were signed or became effective within the first quarter of 2009.
The newly-signed loan was the National Road Improvement Management Project Phase II while the newly effective loans were the Governance in Justice Sector Reform Program, Agrarian Reform Communities Project II, Mega Bridges for Urban and Rural Development and The Global Food Crisis Response Program Development Policy Operation.
For the quarter, the top source of donor aid was the Government of Japan-Japan International Cooperation Agency (GOJ-JICA) with around $3 billion or a 39-percent contribution, followed by WB with some $1.4 billion (19 percent) and the ADB with about $1.2 billion (16 percent).
Other ODA sources include Germany, Belgium, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kuwait, and France.
Donors also included Finland, Nordic Development Fund (NDF), Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Netherlands, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency (SIDA), Spain and the United Kingdom with some $1 billion (14 percent) and China with around $960 million
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