South Korea has offered $1 billion in official development assistance (ODA) to the Philippines to help boost the Duterte administration’s infrastructure program, Malacañang said on Tuesday.

In a news conference in South Korea, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the commitment was made during a bilateral meeting on Monday between President Rodrigo Duterte and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, at the Blue House in Seoul.

“Pagdating sa usaping economic cooperation, dinoble po ng South Korea ang kanilang overseas development assistance para po sa mga imprastraktura, suporta po para sa ating Build, Build, Build [On the economic

cooperation aspect, South Korea has doubled its overseas development assistance for our infrastructure projects, to support our Build, Build Build program],” Roque told reporters.





“Noong mga nakalipas na taon po, meron po silang kalahating milyong dolyar na ODA na binigay. At ngayon naman po, dinoble, naging isang bilyon po ang ipinangako ng South Korea para sa ating infrastructure projects [In previous years, they provide us $500 million in ODA. And now, it was doubled, South Korea has now pledged to provide $1 billion for our infrastructure projects],” he said.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd, during the same news briefing, said the projects to be funded by the $1 billion ODA include the $172.64 million for the new Cebu International Container Port project, $100 million for the new Dumaguete Airport, $50 million for the project preparation facility of the National Irrigation Administration and $41 million for the implementation of electronic receipt, invoices and sales reporting system that will help the government monitor all taxes paid by retailers.

“We intend to maximize this amount committed to us,” according to Dominguez.

He said projects for the remaining $636.36 million in ODA funds will be identified later.

“I recommended to Deputy Prime Minister Kim the use of unallocated amount to two or three of the flagship infrastructure projects identified in the Build, Build, Build program. We promise to forward to the Korean government as soon as possible a list of flagship projects for their consideration,” Dominguez added.

He said he had assured Korean officials of “our strict monitoring of projects to make sure none of the Korean taxpayers’ money is wasted in corruption and that all ODA-supported projects will bring lasting benefits to the Filipino people.”

The doubling of the amount, Dominguez added, can be attributed to South Korea’s “New Southern Policy,” which aims to deepen ties between Seoul and Southeast Asian countries.

“I expressed the gratitude of the Filipino people for the strong support South Korea extends to our economic modernization. South Korea is firmly committed to the Philippines economic emergence. We are ready to take our place as one of Asia’s tiger economies, and we will forever be grateful for the generous partnership extended by the Korean people,” he said.