Promoting agribusiness
CONFLICT-AFFECTED areas in Mindanao are getting more attention from the National Government these days, maybe because we have brought a Mindanaoan to Malacañang.
The Duterte administration, true to his campaign promise, is bent on improving the lives of the people who for so long have been devastated by continuing armed conflict in these areas.
And so, Malacañang has been exerting relentless efforts to hasten implementation of government-initiated socio-economic development projects, particularly those that are supported by foreign governments or those that have been promised with enough funding from foreign donors.
For instance, the government, through the Land Bank of the Philippines, is pushing for the speedy implementation of a program that aims to promote agribusiness investments in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
Dubbed as Harnessing Agribusiness Opportunities through Robust and Vibrant Entrepreneurship Supportive of Peaceful Transformation (Harvest) Project, it aims to open a lending window for agribusiness ventures and other related investments in Armm and other conflict-affected areas in Mindanao.
It will be implemented by Land Bank from 2017 to 2022 and funded by a loan grant from Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), which has been actively involved in promoting peace and development in Mindanao's conflict-affected areas.
In a recent meeting with Jica top officials in Tokyo, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III made assurance that Harvest is now on the final stages of securing all the requirements necessary to formalize a memorandum of agreement between the Department of Finance (DOF) and Land Bank for the implementation of the project.
Policies and new mechanisms to ensure the money will go to real beneficiaries are also being laid out. Monitoring of project implementation will be intensified so that it will really serve its purpose.
Loans funded under the Harvest project will be made available to large agribusiness enterprises; farmers’ organizations or cooperatives; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); and “corporatives” or corporation-managed farms supported by the LandBank in Armm and other conflict-affected areas.
The DOF is expecting to secure all requirements for the MOA to take effect by middle of next month.
The Land Bank and the Japanese government signed a loan agreement worth almost 5 billion yen to fund the five-year project during the official visit of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Philippines last January.
It was signed by Land Bank president and CEO Alex Buenaventura and Jica chief representative to the Philippines Susumu Ito.
This Jica loan will mature in 25 years, inclusive of a seven-year grace period with an interest rate of 1.4 percent.
On top of the proposed loan, Jica intends to provide a technical grant of about $6 million (about P290 million) to support the capacity building of eligible beneficiaries of Harvest and Land Bank's management of the project.