Japan bestows grant to RP for its medium-term economic goals

MANILA, Philippines - Japan extended a special grant to the Philippines, allowing Manila to meet its medium-term economic goals. Worth Y700 million or P361.544 million, the said grant was the eighth such batch in Japan’s non-project grant aid (NPGA), the Japanese embassy’s Philippine website said. All eight grants have now reached a total of Y15.1 billion or P7.803 billion. Besides allowing the Philippines to procure commodities such as fertilizers, the grant also supports various projects including the distribution of personal computers for public secondary schools around the country. Last year’s seventh NPGA worth Y600 million or P310 million was used to buy 15,000 tons of fertilizer, the embassy’s website said. The countervalue fund accumulated by the Philippine government through the sale of these commodities enables it to carry out various projects for its socio-economic development. These include the project to distribute personal computers for public secondary schools nationwide, and the project to construct the Philippine Judicial Academy Development Center of the Supreme Court in Tagaytay. The Philippine government requested the Japanese government to provide NPGA to help it meet the policy objectives reflected in the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) established in November 2004. "I am confident that through the eighth batch which we have just signed, the Philippine government will continue to make significant strides in promoting the welfare of the Filipino people," Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Makoto Katsura said during a ceremony at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Pasay City. “I strongly hope that this grant aid will serve as another bridge that would continue strengthening and deepening the friendship and cooperation between the Governments and peoples of Japan and the Philippines." - GMANews.TV