Aquino leaving for official visit to Japan Sunday

MANILA, Philippines—Fresh from his five-day official visit to the United States, President Benigno Aquino III will embark on yet another trip, this time, to Japan where the government is expecting $1.1 billion in private investments on top of a loan package worth ¥9.2 billion.

The President will leave for Tokyo Sunday morning, just two days after arriving home from New York and Washington DC, where he made a pitch for his administration’s commitment to transparent governance.

His four-day visit to Japan will be highlighted by a state luncheon to be hosted by Emperor Akihito on Wednesday and a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, to be followed by an official dinner, the day before.

Aquino is expected to bring home a ¥9.2-billion loan as part of a “global facility” made available by Tokyo to help neighboring countries combat the effects of climate change.

Foreign Assistant Secretary Maria Lazaro, head of the Office of Asia Pacific Affairs, on Friday said the Philippines would spend the amount on disaster management in Regions 2, 3, 6, and the Cordillera Administrative Region.

She said the project would involve “forest lands management which will benefit the Philippine river basins and upland regions.”

“This is a global facility which was given by Japan some few years back and we were one of the few [countries that] were able to get this project that augurs well for climate change,” Lazaro said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

“We all know that Japan is very strong on this issue of climate change and this is also something that we need,” she said.

Aside from the loan, the President is also expected to secure $1.1 billion worth of investments from “several major Japanese business companies.”

In his meeting with Noda, Aquino will “highlight the country’s strong economic performance and encourage continued Japanese investments in the Philippines including Japanese participation in infrastructure developments under the public-private partnership scheme,” Lazaro said.

“Japan is one of the Philippines’ closest friends with a consistent track record of support to the Philippines,” she said. “The President’s official working visit will be an important step toward cementing our strategic relations with this close neighbor and a valued partner.”

Aquino is scheduled on Tuesday to sit down with members of the Japan Philippines Economic Cooperation Committee, and the Japan and Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He will later witness the signing of agreements on new investments and deliver the keynote address in the Philippine Economic Forum.

Lazaro said Japan remained as the Philippines’ leading source of official development assistance, a top trading partner and source of foreign direct investments.

“The emerging strategic partnership between the Philippines and Japan … will intensify economic cooperation, from mutual prosperity and political cooperation, to address bilateral and especially global and regional issues of global import,” she said.

Japan’s assistance will come despite its massive spending on reconstruction efforts following a catastrophic earthquake that triggered a powerful tsunami and a nuclear crisis in its northeast region last March.

“Japan has informed the Philippines that despite, perhaps, their difficulties, they will sustain the amount of overseas development assistance,” Lazaro said. “It will not go a cent lower.”

As an expression of sympathy to the Japanese, Mr. Aquino will visit Miyagi Prefecture on Monday and will present a token as an expression of sympathy for the thousands who perished in the tsunami.

While there, Aquino will tour an evacuation center and the coastal area and attend a gathering of Filipinos in Ishinomaki City, nearly half of which had been obliterated by the disaster.

“The President will, of course, reiterate to Japan’s leadership the Philippines’ message of solidarity and its continuing support for Japan’s reconstruction,” Lazaro said. “The President will also thank Japan for its support in the Mindanao peace process and for its assistance to grassroots projects in conflict-affected areas.”