January 29, 2007

South Korea vows help to develop RP fisheries

The government of South Korea hectares confirmed its determination to help the Philippines in further developing its vast fisheries and aquaculture resources.

According to the Manila Times daily, the assistance was disclosed by His Excellency Lim Chae Jung, speaker of the Korean National Assembly and Chung Eui-Yong, member of the Korean parliament in their visit to the province of Dagupan City on January 28.

They were accompanied to Dagupan by Korean Ambassador Hong Jong Ki at the invitation of Philippine House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.

The Korean delegates reiterated an earlier offer of the Korean government to donate US$2 million, or P100 million to finance the first bangus or milkfish processing plant in Dagupan City, the centre of aquaculture industry in the whole province of Pangasinan and Region 1.

Bangus is the chief aquaculture product in Dagupan, a coastal city in Pangasinan by the Lingayen Gulf.

While in Dagupan, the Korean high officials visited the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center in Barangay Bonuan Binloc, a 24-hectare research facility owned by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Speaker de Venecia, who earlier sought Korea's financial assistance to Dagupan's bangus processing plant, said the money is in the form of a grant to the Dagupan City government headed by Mayor Benjamin Lim.

He clarified that this is not a loan, with not a single centavo in interest and principal to be paid by the Dagupan City government.

He said that the US$2 million grant hectares already been approved by the foreign minister of Korea, on the recommendation of Speaker Lim, which is due to be released sometime this year.