Manila-- "A lever for promoting the interests of donor countries." This was how participants of the Asian-wide conference on Official Development Assistance (ODA) here described Japanese aid.

According to Antonio Tujan of the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN), one of the organizers of the conference, "The so-called Japanese aid to Asian countries only serves as a river to impose Japan's conditionalities to recipient countries." He cited as an example the Power Restructuring Program loan given to the Philippines, which required the privatization of the government-run NAPOCOR.

In his paper, Tujan said that the most recent controversial conditionality of aid is the structural adjustment requisites that ensure the implementation of neoliberal policies in Asia. These policies, he added, are only beneficial to investors from Japan and other donor countries and not to the recipient nations.

While aid clearly do not foster economic progress in Asian countries, Andrew Nette of ACFOA, one of the conference presentors, added that conditionalities attached to it undermine national policies, constitutional laws and the need for people's consultation in recipient countries.

The Japanese ODA conference, held on July 18-20 in Manila, was attended by 25 individuals from 21 organizations in 13 Asian countries. The international network Reality of Aid, which monitors the impact of aid around the world, asked the assistance of the APRN last year to organize an Asian conference. Among the presentors were APRN members IBON Foundation, Third World Network, NGO-COD, UBINIG, INFID and APMMF.

By the end of the conference, participants planned a series of build-up campaigns that call for an end to Japanese ODA in Asia. The campaign will culminate in an international conference in Japan in 2003, the 50th anniversary of Japanese ODA.

According to the APRN. the papers presented in the conference would be published in two books, one on Japanese ODA and the other, on aid conditionality.

| More...