By Robina Asido

The Philippines is expected to become this year’s top beneficiary of yen loan projects from the Japanese government, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) official said.

This was announced by JICA Chief Representative Sakamoto Takema in a press conference in Makati City on Friday .

“(The) Philippines last year accounted for 250 (billion yen) or something but now if everything goes well, now we are preparing the line-up for this fiscal year’s yen loan projects to the Philippines amounting to over 400 (billion) yen,” he said.

“Obviously Philippines...can be ranked as the... top number one country from the viewpoint of size we are conducting… I can say that we are now preparing over 400 billion yen, so the Philippines' future is bright,” he added.

Sakamato said for Japanese fiscal year 2022 or from April 2022 to March 2023, the Philippines is expected to receive more loan yen projects from Japan than India and Bangladesh, which tops 2021 beneficiaries.

“Obviously India, Bangladesh or other countries like Indonesia... (which) used to be the top recipient before but now it declined. So now India and Bangladesh are evolving and Philippines is now revitalizing,” he said.

“I don’t know India’s exact figure for this fiscal year but no (more than) 350 (billion) or something, I expect they maintain the figure but the Philippines may be able to have over 400 billion yen,” he added.

Sakamoto said Japan is consistently the top bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) provider for the Philippines from 2015 to 2019.

He added that as of 2021, a total of 10,536 Japanese experts; 21,446 Japanese study team members; and 1,677 Japanese volunteers were deployed to the Philippines while 42,372 Filipinos were trained by JICA. DMS