The Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO) is advancing efforts to secure direct financing for its locators through engagement with major Japanese banks.
APECO president and chief executive Gil Taway announced the agency is set to hold two one-on-one meetings in Japan in November on the sidelines of a forum on Philippine taxation in Tokyo.
The initiative is part of an ongoing strategy to tap Japanese financial institutions that can directly fund companies planning to set up operations inside the ecozone, which APECO hopes will speed up the process for its locators.
“Our strategy is to find funders for the companies that want to be located there, so the process becomes faster,” Taway said.
He said the agency has already met with two megabanks and hopes to add more. While not naming them, Taway confirmed the banks belong to Japan’s top-tier banking group.
The talks are being facilitated by a legal adviser from Asahi Tax Corp., which has been connecting APECO with large financial institutions.
APECO is pursuing two financing tracks for potential locators: companies can either raise their own capital independently or secure loans or official development assistance (ODA) through partner banks.
The agency prefers projects that do not require ODA or government loans. Taway explained that financing requiring ODA or government loans “will require endorsement from the Department of Finance and a sovereign guarantee, which means it will need to go through the President and may take a bit longer.”
He said some investors are already exploring self-funded models that would no longer require Philippine government backing.
Further meetings in Japan are being set, with APECO expecting additional banks and private equity partners to join the pipeline, he said.
