PNoy returns from Japan with $1.4B investments

President Benigno Aquino III brought back from his working visit to Japan ¥9 billion in official development aid and $1.4 billion in private sector investments, including a $300-million hotel project in Taguig City. Aquino returned Wednesday evening from Tokyo, where at the Imperial Hotel, he witnessed the signing of four agreements between Filipino and Japanese investors. “Matapos ang 36 na meeting at engagements, inaasahang $1.4 billion ang tiyak na papasok mula sa Japan mula sa industriya ng enerhiya, manufacturing at services," Aquino said in remarks upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2. Trade Department officials said the President’s mission to Japan exceeded the trip’s targeted investment goal of $1.1 billion. Filipino-Japanese ventures President Aquino looked on as Orix Corp. chairman and CEO Yoshihiko Miyauchi and Federal Land chairman Francisco Sebastian signed the memorandum of agreement for the construction of the US$300-million five-star Grand Hyatt Hotel project in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Sebastian also signed another agreement with First Metro Investment Corp. and Mitsui and Co. Ltd., which was represented by chief operating officer Tatsuo Nakayama of the Motor Vehicles and Construction Machinery Business Unit of Mitsui. Another agreement Aquino saw forged was the “reservation and term sheet" of industrial gas firm INGASCO. Masahiko Kitabatake, president of INGASCO, and Clark Development Corp. president and CEO Felipe Antonio Remolio sealed that deal. INGASCO is a joint venture between the Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp. of Japan and Caloocan Gas Corp. It has an air separation plant in San Jose, Batangas and addresses the industrial, medical, and specialty gas needs of various industries. The Transnational Diversified Group and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) Line also entered into a memorandum of agreement. Xavier Delgado, director of Transnational Diversified Group and Naoya Tazawa, representative director and senior managing corporate director of Nippon Yusen, were the signatories. Cars and syringes Top executives of the Terumo Medical Corporation also met President Aquino at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel. They presented a “letter of commitment" on the expansion of their syringe production facilities in the Laguna Technopark in Biñan, Laguna. Aquino met Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC) executive vice president Yukitoshi Funo Coloma, Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) president Michinobu Sugata, and TMP vice chairman Alfred Ty. TMC assured Aquino that it will invest P3.6 billion between now and 2016 to expand its dealership network in throughout the Philippines and create 5,000 new jobs in the process. Coloma said the expansion plan will bring the global auto firm’s total investments in the country Philippines to P20 billion. Japan is the Philippines’ largest trading partner with total trade of $14.5 billion in 2010. ODA for forests in Luzon and Panay Signed and exchanged during the President's visit to Japan were the notes to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) official development assistance (ODA) loan of ¥9.2 billion for the Forestland Management Project (FMP). The FMP was designed to conserve, protect and rehabilitate the river basin areas of the Upper Magat River, Cagayan River, Pampanga River and Jalaur River. FMP activities will include ecological restoration of degraded forestland, enhancement of upland economic development, and establishment of improved watershed management systems. Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert F. Del Rosario were the signatories of the notes of the ODA loan, which carries a concessional interest rate of 0.3 % per annum and a repayment period of 40 years with a ten-year grace period. — PE/VS/ELR, GMA News