A clear demonstration of this “fast and sure” approach was the signing of 10 loan agreements between Manila and Tokyo since President Duterte assumed office in June 2016.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Special Adviser to the Japan prime minister Dr. Hiroto Izumi at a recent ceremony held at the Philippine International Convention Center. The two officials will meet again in Hakone, Japan to discuss the progress of President Duterte’s major infrastructure projects. PNA

The town of Hakone in eastern Japan is the venue of the next high-level meeting between Philippine and Japanese officials to discuss the progress of the Duterte’s administration’s big-ticket infrastructure projects that are being implemented with funding support from Tokyo.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Economic and Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia will chair the Philippine delegation while Dr. Hiroto Izumi is expected to lead the Japanese side in the meeting set on 6 December.

The meeting in Hakone of the Philippines-Japan Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation will be the ninth such dialogue between the two countries. The first meeting was convened in March 2017 at Kantei, the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo, Japan and the most recent or eighth one was held at the Marriot Hotel in Clark, Pampanga.

According to Dominguez, the regular meetings held between the Philippines and Japan is part of the “fast and sure” approach adopted by the two countries to ensure smooth and swift implementation of the Japan-funded projects under President Duterte’s signature “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure modernization program.

A clear demonstration of this “fast and sure” approach was the signing of 10 loan agreements between Manila and Tokyo since President Duterte assumed office in June 2016, Dominguez said.

Several of these agreements involving infrastructure projects, said Dominguez, were each processed and approved in a short span of three to four months.

The 10 infrastructure projects being funded by the loan agreements include the Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project for the Philippine Coast Guard (Phase II); Harnessing Agribusiness Opportunities through Robust and Vibrant Entrepreneurship Supportive of Peaceful Transformation; Cavite Industrial Area Flood Risk Management Project; Arterial Road Bypass Project (Phase III) in Bulacan; New Bohol Airport Construction and Sustainable Environment Protection Project (II); Metro Rail Transit Line 3 Rehabilitation Project; Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project (Phase IV); d the North-South Commuter Railway Extension Project; the Metro Manila Subway Project (Phase I); and the Road Network Development Project in Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao.

Japan remains to be the leading 1 provider of Official Development Assistance loans and grants totaling $8.26 billion (46 percent share of the country’s total ODA loan portfolio) as of December 2018.

It is the Philippines’ second major trading partner in 2018 ($21.1 billion), the country’s second largest export market ($10.3 billion), and third import supplier ($10.82 billion). Japan is also the Philippines’ fourth largest source of tourists, with over 631,000 Japanese having visited the country in 2018. Last year’s arrivals from Japan grew 8.15 percent over the same period in 2017.