The National Economic Development Authority's (NEDA) investment coordinating council (ICC) had approved a ₱431 million Japanese grant to modernize the aquaculture laboratories of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) in Iloilo to boost fish species production by the Department of Agriculture (DA). Zenaida Villegas, DA chief of packaging and resource mobilization, said that the ICC's approval accelerates implementation of the project to about March 2002. The SEAFDEC project has been found by NEDA to be economically viable with an internal rate of return of 25.6 percent.

NEDA okays ₱431-M grant to SEAFDEC. (2001, September 4). Manila Bulletin, p. B-1.