The project, which combines local shipbuilding, French-backed financing and technology transfer, is expected to significantly expand the coastguard’s fleet at a time of growing operational demands in Philippine waters.
“OCEA … is currently trying to find the best partner and the best place to build the shipyard” for the project, French Ambassador to Manila Marie Fontanel told reporters last week.
A financial agreement underpinning the deal – involving French private banks, the French government and the Philippine government – was “now under discussion”, Fontanel told This Week in Asia.
She said the arrangement would cover the local construction of 20 aluminium-hulled coastguard cutters, each measuring 35 metres, with another 20 to be built in France.
The financing, she said, would come from a consortium of French private banks. “It’s a financial sovereign loan from the French government but it will be coursed through private lenders.”
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