The decision of a US foreign aid agency to bypass the Philippines for its five-year grants would not have a “real impact” on the country’s economy, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said on Thursday.

In a news briefing, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said he “would not lose sleep” over the decision of the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) to defer a vote on the reselection of the Philippines for a second compact.

On Thursday the MCC Board of Directors deferred a vote on the second compact pending “further review of concerns around rule of law and civil liberties.”

“Its really more symbolic in terms of the confidence of those behind the MCC, rather than that thing having real impact on the economy. It’s not going to be that significant. [Considering] the amounts of investments that many countries are interested in putting in, I would not lose sleep over that,” Pernia said.

The MCC provided the Philippines a grant of $434 million in September 2010. Among the projects financed by the MCC grant include the Secondary National Road Development Project and the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services.

Neda Deputy Director General Rolando G. Tungpalan said he has recently met with representatives from Japan, China, Korea, Austria, Italy and Spain who are keen on investing and extending official development assistance to the country.

Tungpalan said he has held discussions with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank on possible projects they can finance.

Pernia added that the Jin Liqun, president of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), had also reached out to him.

“He was trying to sell AIIB assistance really, trying to say they’re going to be different from the World Bank and the ADB in terms of speed of approval,” he said.

He said that, while the World Bank will take three years to process, they can do it in six months or less than a year. He was practically offering us on a silver platter the assistance they provided at AIIB,” Pernia added.

Earlier, the Neda said the Philippine government is seeking to finance P378.89 billion worth of projects through Chinese loans. The Neda told the BusinessMirror that there are 15 projects being proposed for funding through ODA loans from China.

The Philippines has submitted a list of 23 projects to China under its feasibility study support scheme. The Neda said the list includes transportation, irrigation and water supply facilities development, fish-port development and energy cooperation projects.

Together with the Department of Finance, the Neda said the list of projects were submitted to National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom) in a letter dated November 29.

The letter was sent following the Mofcom and NDRC missions to the Philippines in November and President Duterte’s state visit to China in October.