THE Duterte administration has submitted a total of 40 "large and small" infrastructure projects to China for possible loan financing and assistance in conducting feasibility studies, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Wednesday.
Further discussions on the details of the proposed projects will take place in Manila next month, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
Of the 40 projects, 15 are being proposed for loan financing while another 25 were submitted for feasibility study support.
Dominguez led a high-level delegation to China on January 23 to 24 to follow up on the multi-billion dollar financial assistance that China promised to extend to the Philippines during President Rodrigo Duterte's state visit to Beijing in October last year.
“It was a very positive and very productive meeting,” Dominguez said, referring to their meeting with the Chinese counterparts. “My expectation is that the projects that we have discussed would be implemented very quickly and that it would benefit both [the] people [of China and the Philippines].”
Three of the large-scale projects submitted for Chinese loan financing are meant to raise the productivity of small farmers, improve transportation and logistics services in underserved areas of Luzon and ensure a steady water supply to Metro Manila.
These three projects, with a combined total of $3.4 billion, are the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project in the provinces of Cagayan and Kalinga with an estimated total project cost of $53.6 million; the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project in Quezon, $374.03 million; and the South Line of the North-South Railway running from Manila to Legaspi City in Bicol, $3.01 billion.
Dominguez said the other projects on the list are relatively small in scale, and are easier to implement, such as the construction of bridges across the Pasig River to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila. (SDR/SunStar Philippines)