The government’s capability to implement foreign-assisted programs and projects has improved in 2017 on of implementing agencies’ better financial performance, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Thursday.

According to NEDA’s 2017 Official Development Assistance (ODA) report, all indicators of the government’s absorptive capacity for ODA loans? disbursement level, disbursement rate, availment rate and disbursement ratio ?improved in 2017 as compared to 2016.

From $1.25 billion in 2016, the disbursement level of ODA loans, or the amount of actual draw-downs from loan proceeds in 2017, increased by 11.5 percent to $1.40 billion in 2017. Disbursement rate, or the actual disbursement level as a percentage of target disbursement for the period, was at 67.21 percent, an increase from the previous year’s 61.12 percent.

The availment rate increased by 6 percent to 71.50 percent. This is the cumulative actual disbursements as a percentage of cumulative scheduled disbursement, both reckoned from the start of implementation up to the reporting period.

The disbursement ratio?or the ratio of actual disbursements for a given year to the loan balance available at the beginning of that year inclusive of newly effective loans?increased to 16.66 percent, an increase of 29 percent from the previous year.

“This means implementing agencies are improving their technical capacities and making headway in resolving key issues that cause delaysin the execution of programs and projects,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

The Philippines’ total outstanding ODA portfolio for the full year of 2017 reached $14.72 billion, constituting 352 grants amounting to $2.42 billion and 70 loans amounting to $12.30 billion, the NEDA’s report says.

The infrastructure sector continued to receive the largest share of the total ODA at $6.62 billion, accounting for 45 percent of the total amount, followed by social reform and community development at 26.11 percent.

Japan remained the top provider of ODA to the Philippines in 2017. Its loans and grants for 2017 stood at $5.33 billion, accounting for 36.18 percent of the country’s total ODA portfolio.

It was followed by the World Bank with $3.07 billion (20.88 percent) and the Asian Development Bank with $2.97 billion (20.16 percent).