00:00I believe that what we sign today is extremely important.
00:07Nuclear projects, whether big or medium-sized or even small,
00:12require an initial capital investment which is significant.
00:19And one of the, if not obstacles, one of the problems that nuclear has had historically is the lack of access to finance.
00:38Because of a number of situations, some of them having to do with a bad image of nuclear energy,
00:49in a certain sense, the Brasilia work was referring to this in the past,
00:56some banks, international institutions, were reluctant.
01:03But with passage of time and the safety record of nuclear and the ability to demonstrate by the industry,
01:10you know, banks are conservative, of course, in what they finance.
01:15There has been an important change, which was initiated earlier this year,
01:22when I signed with the President of the World Bank a similar agreement.
01:28So when the World Bank sent this, you know how it happens in the economy in general,
01:34when there is a sign from the leading institutions, the leading financing institutions in the world,
01:43that there is no problem, basically, to put it in plain English.
01:48There is really no problem, no technical problem, no fundamental problem in financing.
01:55Of course, this will be the sovereign decision of the Philippines.
01:59But the IEA will be an indispensable partner in that.
02:04If you talk about conditions, yes, the conditions are there to do it.
02:10In terms of the IEA and the Board of Governors, I think, you know, the IEA within the, if you want,
02:19the galaxy of international organizations is one of the most important that exists
02:28because of the spectrum of its activity.
02:31We're talking here about recycling plastics, but with the IEA, you talk about cancer.
02:38You talk about nuclear weapons.
02:40You talk about non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
02:42You talk about development of nuclear energy.
02:44You talk about technical cooperation.
02:46I mean, it's a very wide, a very strategic mission.
02:56And, of course, the Board of Governors is that.
02:59It's the governing body.
03:01It is clear that the Philippines is in a process of analyzing,
03:07evaluating the possible introduction of nuclear energy in the country.
03:12The IEA is, of course, the global platform for nuclear cooperation in the world.
03:18So it is natural that we have this conversation today, of course,
03:25at the level of the president to evaluate what steps the country is taking
03:30and how best to cooperate in this effort.
03:35So this is by way of an introduction.
03:37And, of course, I will be glad to address it.
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