Malacañang Palace
09 August 2012 

 

President Benigno S. Aquino III witnessed the signing of a loan agreement between the Philippines and South Korea for the construction of the Jaluar River Multipurpose Irrigation Project in Iloilo.

The $207.88 million loan agreement was signed between Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Executive Director Sang-Wan Byun of the Export Import Bank of Korea (EXIM) for the construction of the multipurpose irrigation project that is expected to support the irrigation of 31,840 hectares of land for the benefit of 21,000 farmers in Iloilo. The project is also expected to increase the agriculture and fishery production for areas near the Jaluar River.

The loan agreement is said to be the largest-scale assistance for a single project extended by the South Korean government to the Philippines through South Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund.

Present during the signing were Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alacala, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Administrator Antonio Nangel, Senator Franklin Drilon, South Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Hye Min Lee and Korea EXIM Bank chief representative Tae-Ik Park.

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