ODA Loans Down to $9.61B in 2010
Total Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans amounted to $9.61 billion as of December 2010, lower than the $9.7 billion for the same period of the previous year, according to a report of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
This amount financed 81 project loans ($7.9 billion) and 10 program loans ($1.7 billion). Among them, 72 are ongoing, 15 were closed, while four project loans are yet to be made effective.
However, ODA disbursements posted a total of $1.59 billion in 2010, 35% lower than the $2.44 billion in the previous year.
According to NEDA, this was a result of low disbursements registered by 24 out of 72 ongoing ODA loans due to implementation issues. Eighteen ongoing programs and project loans have disbursement rates below 50%. Also, compared to September 2010, total number of project loans with low disbursements increased by three.
Six ongoing program and project loans did not disburse due to suspension of project activities, national government-local government unit cost sharing issues and low demand for subprojects. These projects include the following: Angat Water Utilization and Aqueduct Improvement Project, Credit Facility for the Environmental Management Project, Agrarian Reform Communities Project II, Tulay ng Pangulo sa Kaunlaran, Tulay ng Pangulo para sa Magsasaka Project and the Second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project.
Also, the disbursement rate of ODA loans reached an average of 81.47% in 2010, which is 9% lower than the 90.43% achieved by implementing agencies in the previous year. The disbursement ratio, which is the actual disbursements to the net loan amount available during the year, went down to 30% from 42% in 2009.
Similarly, availment rate decreased to 80% in 2010 from 86% in 2009. For project loans, availment rate went down to 76.71% from 80.41% while program loans decreased to 92% from 95%.
Meanwhile, six requests for cost overruns were received in 2010 by the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) Secretariat that summed up to PhP3.54 billion. Thus, with four loans closed, one request withdrawn and one cost adjustment during the period, the total overrun stock as of December 2010 amounted to PhP27.88 billion for 20 requests.
Of these 20 requests, 15 secured ICC-Cabinet Committee approval, while two were endorsed by the ICC-Technical Board and three requests are under ICC Secretariat review. These three requests are for the following projects: Widening of the Gapan-San Fernando-Olongapo Road, Pinatubo hazard Urgent Mitigation Project, and the National Road Improvement and Management Program Phase 2.
The biggest donor of ODA as of 2010 is the Government of Japan-Japan International Cooperation Agency (GOJ-JICA), having a share of 36% of total ODA commitments. GOJ-JICA is followed by the World Bank with a 21% share, and other funding sources also with the same share. These sources include Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Korea, Netherlands, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the United Kingdom.
The Asian Development Bank’s commitment share went down to 10% as of 2010 from 23% in 2009. China, meanwhile, registered a 12% contribution of ODA as of 2010.