By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated June 15, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines – The
Philippines needs more investments in the renewable energy (RE) sector to spur
more financing options from local banks, industry officials said yesterday.
A number of local banks have started
offering more financing options to the RE sector, SN Power Philippines country
director Tor Stokke said during the Nordic Business Council Philippines (NBCP)
Renewable Energy Seminar yesterday.
“The RE market is more competitive.
Local banks are more willing to finance projects and are very liquid,” he said.
This is because financial
institutions are well aware of the move to develop RE projects, BDO Unibank
Senior EVP and Head of Institutional Banking Group Walter Wassmer said in the
same event.
“We follow the cue from the
developer. As of now, developers are dabbling into RE,” he said.
To date, BDO has over P33-billion
loan exposure to RE. “BDO is prepared to do its share in the global move to
cleaner technologies,” Wassmer said.
However, the BDO official said
majority of investments in the power sector are still concentrated in
coal-fired power plants.
“A great, big portion of investments
are still in coal-fired power plants. We’re not a subject matter expert; we are
financial institution. We would have to look into the issues through the eyes
of the developers and sponsors of developers,” Wassmer said.
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