The Japan International Cooperation Agency is supporting eight ongoing road and bridge projects in the Philippines to help enhance connectivity, attract investments and create jobs in the country.
The 138.13 billion yen or P64 billion worth of projects are part of the bilateral aid agency’s support to the government’s Philippine Development Plan and Build Build Build agenda aimed at increasing the Philippines’ infrastructure spending to P8 trillion to P9 trillion by 2022.
The road projects include the Central Luzon Link Expressway, Arterial Road Bypass, Metro Manila Interchange, Road Upgrading and Preservation, Road Network Development in Mindanao, Marawi road project as well as the Davao City Bypass.
The bypass road project will build the first-ever long-distance (2.3 kilometers) mountain tunnel in the Philippines, while the Metro Manila Priority Bridges Seismic Improvement Project aims to improve seismic resilience of Lambingan and Guadalupe Bridges in Metro Manila.
The projects are being implemented with the Department of Public Works and Highways.
“We want to help the Philippines improve the conditions of its roads and bridges so more investments can come into the Philippines and more jobs will be created,” JICA senior representative Kiyo Kawabuchi said.
“Our support is also part of our commitment to building quality infrastructure in the region to boost economic development and build resiliency against natural disasters in the Asian region,” he added.
The government approved the JICA-NEDA’s Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and Its Surrounding Areas study in 2014 to sustain development by decongesting traffic, and spread economic growth in nearby areas.
According to the roadmap follow-up study, no interventions could mean worsening traffic and an increase in transport costs from P3.5 billion to P5.4 billion a day.
Aside from hard infrastructure like building roads, bridges and railways, JICA is supporting transport infrastructure development through soft measures such as institutional support, capacity building and technology transfer. One example of the latter is sharing Japan’s expertise in road maintenance under the recently completed Project for Improvement of Quality Management for Highway and Bridge Construction and Maintenance.
Transport infrastructure accounts for 80 percent of support from 2013 to 2017 of the total official development assistance of JICA in the Philippines that also includes roads and railways.
