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Japan to offer 76.5 billion yen loan program
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Daily Yomiuri Online - [3/28/2006]
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The government has decided to extend about 76.5 billion yen (655 million dollars) in official loans to Iraq for the improvement of irrigation facilities, power plants and ports as the first part of a 3.5 billion dollars loan program it pledged for the war-torn country in 2003, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday.
The yen loan is the first of its kind to be extended to Iraq in over 20 years. The government stopped providing official credit to Iraq in 1985.
The government wants to show its willingness to continue providing reconstruction assistance to Iraq, despite studying a possible withdrawal of Ground Self-Defense Force personnel involved in reconstruction activities in Samawah, in the south of the country.
The yen loans will finance the construction of irrigation facilities and power stations at various locations across the country and the building of port facilities at Umm Qasr, southern Iraq.
Baghdad has requested Tokyo provide finances for the rehabilitation of some key irrigation facilities because they are needed to rehabilitate the agricultural sector, which has been suffering due to war damage and the poor water supply.
Both governments will sign an agreement after the new Iraqi government is established.
The provision of the yen loans may not occur before May.
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