China Eximbank pledges to finance Phase I of Mainline South Railway Project

On November 15, 2002, China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) signed an MoU with the Philippine National Railways to rehabilitate 400km of the Mainline South Railway from Calamba in Laguna Province to Legaspi in Albay Province, and build 108km of railways to extend the line from Legaspi to Matnog in Sorsogon Province. The organizations involved committed to completing the project within 4 months. China was shown to only be involved in Phase I-A of the project, the rehabilitation of the line from Calamba to Lucena in Quezon Province. At the time, the Philippines Department of Finance had applied for a P16.055b loan from China Eximbank. The project was approved by the Philippines National Economic and Development Authority in November 2006, and the contract for construction by CNTIC was signed in December 2006. The project was to be implemented from 2007 to 2008. According to the ODA Watch source, in December 2009, the Mainline South Railway was still in the pipeline for Chinese financing. No loan agreement has been signed for this project since the 2002 MoU. As of February 2023, the project had stalled, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has noted it as a topic of priority in talks with China.

Number of official sources

3

Number of total sources

8