JICA president Tanaka pays courtesy call on Palace

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)president Akihiko Tanaka paid a courtesy call on President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Wednesday.

“JICA has always been an important partner for the Philippines. It started only with infrastructure, but now you have also expanded into other areas, so we hope we can continue, especially the green projects we have now,” Marcos told Tanaka.

“I think they are going very well and I don’t think we will have particular problems, but if there is anything more that we can do from the Philippine side, we will be happy to hear any suggestions from JICA,” the president added.

In July the Department of Transportation and JICA inked a cooperation agreement aimed at finding solutions to improve road transport in the National Capital Region and nearby areas.

The Philippine government and JICA also signed loan agreements for the construction of the Metro Manila Subway Project.

Tanaka extended his condolences to the victims of the consecutive tropical cyclones that hit the Philippines.

“As a country sharing a similar fate of having monsoon typhoons, the recent experience forced us to continue our collaborative work in disaster risk reduction,” Tanaka told Marcos.

“On this occasion, we think you, Mr. President, has some observations about how to tackle these types of natural disasters and what sort of things that do you consider JICA can be part of your work, that will be extremely appreciated,” he added.

JICA has also tapped the service of a Japanese firm to help the Philippine government utilize artificial intelligence (AI) in disaster response.

This November, tropical cyclones Nika, Ofel, and Pepito entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility and hit several areas in the country. — Mariel Celine Serquiña/BM, GMA Integrated News