South Korea extends $500m loan to Philippines

The South Korean government is making available a credit line of 500 million U.S. dollars to the Philippines, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Monday. NEDA said Seoul is extending the financing assistance under the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) for the period 2014- 2017. "South Korea is interested in infrastructure projects, especially in agriculture, energy and transportation," NEDA deputy Director-General Rolando G. Tungpalan said. Tungpalan said the South Korean government has also expressed interest in funding disaster prevention and rehabilitation projects in view of the damages caused by typhoon Haiyan, locally named "Yolanda." For the period 2011-2013, NEDA said four infrastructure projects with loan requirements totaling 335.78 million U.S. dollars were committed for funding under the EDCF.