DBP Offers New Loan Programs

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 27 Mar) – The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has announced a P81 billion loan program for local governments and traders in the country.

It said the loan program would help traders expand their business and local government units in various development and infrastructure projects.

"[Our] total liquidity can easily amount to about P81 billion. That'swhat we are putting on the table to help you out. Please help us dispenseit," said Reynaldo David, DBP President and Chief Executive Officer, during a recent road-show in Zamboanga City.

Dubbed as "Accelerating Investments Towards Sustainable Development,"the nation-wide road-show aims to encourage stakeholders, particularly those in the microfinance, small and medium enterprises, andindustries such as agriculture, shipping, housing, health, environment, and structure and logistic to tap DBP's loan programs.

In a presentation report, David said DBP has available funds of P44.2 billionand has the ability to tap another P37 billion from foreign banks.

"If somebody will to ask us: How can you draw from your checkbook? Wecan issue a check for P44.2 billion. And we have the ability to tapanother P37.5 billion from foreign banks such as the Japan Bank forInternational Cooperation, which is willing to give us more than P16 billion, and German Bank Kreditanstalt Für Wiederaufbau about P1.5billion and others. We have that much liquidity," he said.

"We have prepared ourselves in 2006, so that we can go with theeconomy ascend happening in the country today. There's no stoppingit," he said.

He said the DBP has P35 billion in authorized capital stock, and a networth of P31.6 billion as of February 2007, adding that the bank wasable to generate its annual net income of roughly P 3.7 billion in 2006.

"Based on our target market for 2007, we want enhance our development loan for P4 billion and commercial for P1.5 billion and that's an increase of fivefold compared to last year," he said.

He said the DBP's huge loan facility was due to the bank’s sound financial capability. DBP, he said, is able to rid its bad assets and bad loans last year that resulted in huge availability for new loan programs.

For small and medium scale enterprises alone, the DBP has released some P 11.8 billion to fund about 4,600 projects this year and with an outstanding loan portfolio of P14 billion, which is up by 30.07% in December 2006.

In social services, the bank, David said, is also allocating roughly P 9.2 billion to support 14 health projects, mostly in Mindanao. These also include 10 housing projects amounting to P 721 million and housing projects worth about P147 million.

In the environment sector, the DBP said it released P 17 billion to fund 153 various environmental projects, such as solid waste management and forest rehabilitation. It also approved 89 industrial pollution control projects worth about P 9 billion.

David said the bank also released P12 billion to support a total of 212 infrastructure and logistic project under its Sustainable Logistics Development Program.

To assist the fishing industry, the DBP said it is allocating an initial P2 billion loan this year in Zamboanga City to finance acquisition of fishing vessels and other related investments.

David said the financing facility will help modernize the local fishing industry and help the Western Mindanao region to sustain its competitiveness as the sardine capital of the Philippines.

He said the facility has a repayment term of up to 10 years or even more, depending on the cash flow of the company. The 10-years payment is exclusive of two year grace period. Adding that 805 of the total project cost will be financed while collateral is mortgaged on the fishing vessel and other assets.

In addition, David revealed that the DBP is looking to prop support to this region by financing projects amounting to P5.2 billion. In its bank's report, he said that DBP’s three branches in the region have combined to support roughly P802 million in various projects such as water district, mini-hydro power plant, rice milling, food processing, fish mill, poultry, school building, and other developmental projects.

He said the DBP is also eyeing to support logistics development projects in Mindanao amounting to P580 million, which aims to modernize the processing, storage, delivery, and the distribution of grain harvests and perishable goods and framers from Mindanao to Luzon.

"With these projects, we expect that Mindanao processors can experiencean improvement in their logistics and delivery system. These proposed facilities will reduce wastage and spoilage of goods, and enable thefaster delivery of commodities to key areas like Metro Manila," he emphasized.

The DBP also turned-over loan packages for Mega Fishing Corporation and Zamboanga Carrageenan Manufacturing Corporation here. The two companies, however, declined to disclose the amount of the loan.

DBP's officials handed land titles to the local government of Sirawai in Zamboanga del Norte province amounting to P22 million.

Top officials of the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority and the Zamboanga del Sur Electric Cooperative have also separately inked an agreement with DBP. (Darwin Wee)