Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Electricity Sector in Iraq The long-term economic sanctions and conflicts had been devastating the economic and social environment of Iraq. However, after the Iraq War in 2003, the country is finally undergoing reconstruction and development with the support from the international society. The electricity sector is the foundation of various activities of the economy and society, and it is essential for the reconstruction of Iraq. However, due to years of lack of new investments/maintenance management and plunder, the functions in all sub-sectors, such as power generation, transmission, transformation, and distribution, have been extremely deteriorated until today. The average daily power supply which was 9,000 megawatts (MW) in 1990s was declined to lower than 3,000MW right after the Iraq War. After the war, with the support from international society, the Government of Iraq has been making effort for the reconstruction of the electricity sector as one of the priority areas. However, the power supply had recovered only up to 5,500MW as of 2009, while the average daily demand is 12,000MW, and long unplanned power outage are forced regularly accordingly. Thus the reconstruction of the electricity sector in Iraq, especially the improvement of power generation capacity, is one of the top priority issues.
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of Communication Sector in Myanmar The telecommunication infrastructure has lagged in Myanmar due to many years of restrictions on imports and insufficient financial resources. Until now, Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has substantially monopolized the provision of domestic fixed telephones, mobile phones, and the Internet. Insufficient network capacity and a high usage fee, etc. keep the prevalence of communication tools low, as evidenced by a fixed telephone penetration rate of only 1.00% (534,000 subscribers), a mobile phone penetration rate of 12.83% (6,832,000 subscribers), and an Internet penetration rate of 1.20% as of 2013. Such prevalence is the lowest among ASEAN members. In particular, the penetration rate of popular mobile phones exceeds 100% in other countries, while remaining extremely low in Myanmar. After establishment of Thein Sein administration in March 2011, communication usage fee is significantly lowered. Since then, the number of communication service users has steadily grown. The Myanmar government called for bids on new telecommunication licenses, which previously had been monopolized, based on the new Telecommunication Act. In June 2013, Telenor of Norway and Qatar Ooredoo were selected. Both companies were granted telecommunication licenses by the end of January 2014, and started full-scale service in fiscal 2014. Communications infrastructure serves as the basis of all economic activities and the daily lives of citizens. The homogeneous development of the country including areas with minority ethnic groups requires improvement of the nationwide communication network. Thilawa area, a suburban Yangon, is being developed by Japan and Myanmar as a special economic zone (SEZ) via public/private sector cooperation. The district will attract foreign companies, and thus substantially increase communication with foreign countries. The international communication that supports this development should also be improved. Subsequent economic growth in the future will result in an increasingly heavier volume of communication that could further deteriorate the communication environment. Therefore, the Myanmar government should urgently tackle the improvement of communications infrastructure.
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Road and Bridge Sector in Bangladesh The land of Bangladesh is divided by three large rivers - the Padma, the Jamuna and the Xxxxxx - and many other uncountable small and medium-sized rivers. It is an urgent and fundamental issue among the development policies of Bangladesh to improve the transportation network by linking each region through the construction of bridges and roads. In addition, the number of water accidents involving ferry boats, which are a major means of water transportation, is increasing year by year and there is an urgent need to shift to safer land transportation.
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Power Sector in the Republic of Angola
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Energy Sector and Development for Climate Change Measures in Peru In Peru, the rapid economic growth of recent years led to energy demand (final consumption) increasing by an annual average of 8% during the five-year period 2005-09. The main energy source used to meet this demand was natural gas. Assuming that the demand for energy continues to increase at a pace of 7-9%, the current capacity for power generation and supply will need to be almost doubled by 2019. In strengthening power generation capacity, a pressing issue is the promotion and maintenance of energy policies that further expand the use of hydroelectric power and other renewable energy sources which involve lower emissions of greenhouse gases (hereinafter referred to as “GHG”). Looking at the demand for energy in different sectors, demand in the production and transport sectors is trending upward. Demand in the production sector has grown at an average annual rate of 4% over the last 20 years. Given that the majority of this energy has been consumed by outdated equipment, two challenges for this sector are energy savings based on the replacement and improvement of equipment, and the effective use of energy such as through the recovery of waste heat. The transport sector has shown an average annual growth in demand of 5.4% over the last 20 years. Due to the fact that about 40% of all imported vehicles are used vehicles (of which most are gasoline/diesel cars), as well as that most vehicles are, on average, older than twenty years and have poor fuel efficiency, air pollution is another issue that has emerged. In response, the government of Peru has promoted the dissemination of low-emission vehicles by initiating a project in Lima, which has particularly heavy traffic, for the conversion of vehicles to natural gas. While good progress has been made for small vehicles, such as taxis and private vehicles, there has not been enough progress in conversions for medium and large vehicles, such as public buses and trucks. Outside of Lima, because much of the land is covered in steep terrain, there is strong demand for high-horsepower diesel vehicles; and since the exhaust emission regulations for diesel vehicles, which were instituted in 2001, was to be progressively applied starting in 2011, few vehicles comply with the latest standards. With current plans for the establishment of stricter standards nationwide, there is an urgent need to reduce exhaust emissions b...
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of Development of the Road Sector in the Philippines Road traffic is the largest mode of transportation in the Philippines, which accounts for around 90% of the passenger transportation and 50% of the freight transportation. The Government of the Philippines (GOP) has been actively working to establish and improve the road network. However, while the main emphasis is on expansion of the road network, improvement of the quality of existing roads remains insufficient. For example, pavement of arterial national roads has been delayed and roads have deteriorated due to insufficient maintenance, causing problems in terms of effective transportation along the road networks. Though the road operation and management system has been gradually improved due to the efforts of the GOP and international donors, there still remain unsolved problems. For instance, medium-term plans for maintenance budget allocation is yet to be formulated, there has been a delay in the promotion of outsourcing to private sector which is planned to make maintenance works more efficient, the system to promptly respond to disasters is not consolidated sufficiently, and not enough measures have been taken to tackle overloading issue. As stated above, the country has a pressing need to improve arterial national roads (pavement of unpaved road sections) and improve/enhance its system to implement efficient maintenance of national roads in order to deliver sustainable service of the road networks in the country.
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Electric Power Sector in Uzbekistan Uzbekistan's peak power demand reached 8,400 MW in 2014. The nation has a total rated power generation capacity of 13,324 MW at the end of 2013, but power generation facilities throughout the country are aging, and the currently available peak generation capacity of facilities within Uzbekistan is only around 7,800 MW. Thermal power plants (out of which 90% uses natural gas as fuel) generate approximately 90% of all power, and their low average thermal efficiency (around 30%) causes a major environmental impact. Against such a background, government of the Republic of Uzbekistan has formulated a plan to renew/newly install about 20 power generation units by 2030, mainly introducing the combined cycle gas turbine. And the government has repeatedly expressed strong desire to establish a long-term relationship for financial and technical cooperation. In order to deal with the challenges in the electric power sector in a comprehensive and efficient manner as well as responding to this expectation, the government of Japan has decided to conclude a comprehensive Exchange of Notes as “the Electric Power Sector Project Loan (SPL) composed of several projects, and then extend ODA loans to each infrastructure development project, at the same time combining formulation of a master plan or technical cooperation for human resource development. The implementation of this project has been defined by the Presidential Decree (PP-1943), and it is implemented as the first project in the SPL, taking into account the high priority in Uzbekistan. The Fergana region in the east part of the country, where about 30% of the population lives, has shortage of electricity, and further increase of electricity demand by about 8% year on year is expected in the region. In order to mitigate the shortage in electricity and CO2 emission, the construction of highly efficient generation facility is an urgent issue with high priority.
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Private Sector in Vietnam
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Forestry Sector in the Philippines At the start of the twentieth century, at least 70 percent (approximately 23 million hectares) of the Philippines was covered with forests, but by 1990, the country’s forest area decreased to about 22 percent (6.57 million hectares). This is due to large-scale commercial-based deforestation, and disorganized land use including slash and burn agriculture and excess logging by some poor communities to sustain their livelihood. This decrease in forest cover meant not only a decrease in forest resources, but led to disasters such as landslides and floods due to soil erosion and a decreased capacity of the country’s forests to retain water. Thus, the Philippines experiences floods on nearly an annual basis due to the annual average of 20 typhoons and rainstorms. Although forest cover in the country increased by 165,000ha from 1990 to 2010, it remains far below the forest rehabilitation target set by the government of the Philippines (300,000ha by 2010), and further forest rehabilitation and conservation is needed. Especially, in the mountainous region where the poverty rate is higher than other regions in the country, the decrease in forest cover due to disorganized land use including slash and burn agriculture by some poor communities to sustain their livelihood leads to landslides and draught, which in turn accelerate decrease in forest cover.
Background and Necessity of the Project. (1) Current State and Issues of the Flood Control Sector of Tunisia
