Philippines Snubs Chinese funds for infrastructure projects – Self suffice

Philippines is no longer going for a loan from China to fund the ₱2.7-billion rehabilitation of the Navotas Fish Port Complex, as well as Phase 2 of the P7-billion Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project.

"Financing the [Navotas] project using government funds is an option that we are considering," Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Joel Rudinas said in an interview with reporters Thursday.

 "The upgrade of the Navotas Fish Port Complex has been identified as a very necessary, if not, a critical project," Rudinas added.

The Agriculture Department was looking at borrowing up to ₱2.56 billion from the China Export-Import Bank to upgrade the 35-year-old port complex.

"We figured that the required funding is not that big anyway," Rudinas said. "I suppose the Philippine government can finance it on its own," he added.

The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) board is yet to approve the project, even though the Cabinet-level NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee approved it in May.

The Agriculture Department said it would present new financing options for the Navotas Fish Port Complex to NEDA. No date was set for the presentation.

Previously, government said it will shoulder ₱137 million for the rehabilitation of the fish port, which is expected to stabilize fish supply and prices in Metro Manila.

By improving the infrastructure for unloading, the Agriculture Department expects trade in fisheries products to increase by 60 percent to 210,806 metric tons (MT) in 2015 from the current average of 131,934 MT a year.

The National Capital Region sources 80 percent of its fish requirements from the Navotas Fish Port.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said the Philippine is also no longer interested in getting financial assistance from China for the second phase of the P7-billion Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project.

Manila earlier asked the Beijing for ₱5.29-billion loan to fund the project.

Instead, the Philippine government has turned to South Korea. Agriculture officials said Manila already asked for a credit facility from the Korean Exim Bank for the irrigation component of the Casecnan project.

GMA News

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July 2012 Philippines int’l reserves hit up $79.3Billion

Philippines' preliminary gross international reserves (GIR) rose to $79.3 billion as of end-July 2012, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed.

This is higher by $3.2 billion than the end-June 2012 GIR of $76.1 billion.  It has already breached BSP's full-year forecast of between $77.5 and $78 billion.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco said that the end-July 2012 GIR level could adequately cover 11.7 months worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income.

It is also equivalent to 10.7 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 6.4 times based on residual maturity.2

Short-term debt based on residual maturity refers to outstanding external debt with original maturity of one year or less, plus principal payments on medium- and long-term loans of the public and private sectors falling due within the next 12 months.

He said that the increase in the end-July 2012 GIR level was due mainly to the foreign exchange operations of the BSP, foreign currency deposits by the Treasurer of the Philippines (TOP), income from investments abroad of the BSP, and revaluation gains on the BSP's gold holdings arising from the increase in the price of gold in the international market.

 "These were partially offset, however, by outflows for the payments by the National Government (NG) of its maturing foreign exchange obligations and foreign currency withdrawals by authorized agent banks (AABs)," Tetangco said.

Net international reserves (NIR), which include revaluation of reserve assets, increased by $3.2 billion to reach $79.3 billion as of end-July 2012, compared to the end-June 2012 NIR of $76.1 billion.

NIR refers to the difference between the BSP's GIR and total short-term liabilities.

Tetangco said that the country's external payments position "continue to benefit from large OFW remittances, rising BPO earnings and the strong capital inflows."

Remittances coursed through banks during the first five months of the year amounted to $8.3 billion, higher by 5.3 percent relative to the level registered in the same period a year ago.

Fund transfers from land-based workers increased by 2.8 percent to $6.4 billion while those from sea-based workers grew by 14.6 percent to $1.9 billion.

Meanwhile, the Philippines registered lower balance of payments (BOP) surplus last June at $14 million, lower than year-ago's $222 million and month-ago's $138 million.

BOP is the difference between a country's foreign exchange inflows and outflows on a particular period and represents the country's total transactions with the rest of the world.

Last June, the central bank trimmed, among others, the BOP target for this year to $2.6 billion from $2.8 billion on account of the weak global economy.

(Malaya)

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