THE National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said improving the process for evaluating Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives has become a priority as the government makes its big push for infrastructure.

NEDA will be discussing the guidelines for public-private partnership (PPP) projects as well as train its central and regional offices in project appraisal, according to NEDA Investment Programming Assistant Secretary Ruben S. Reinoso, Jr., chairperson of NEDA Bids and Awards Committee.

“ICC (Investment Coordination Committee) will be discussing ‘guidelines for PPP,’” said Mr. Reinoso in a text message, adding that the ICC Technical Board meeting yesterday was just the beginning of discussions.

According to NEDA Deputy Director-General Rolando G. Tungpalan, there are a number of ways to address the problems faced by PPP projects, a few of which were also covered during the technical board meeting of the ICC yesterday.

“We are [also] working on a process that will rationalize mode of procurement for projects,” said Mr. Tungpalan in a text message, referring to the NEDA Board ICC Guidelines on Screening Projects, which had been discussed during the ICC technical board meeting yesterday.

According to the undersecretary, the other programs tackled during the meeting were education pathways to peace in conflict affected areas of Mindanao and the Australia awards and alumni engagement scholarship program, both of which are projects proposed for Australian grant assistance.

Meanwhile, a bid document signed by Mr. Reinoso indicates that the government will be allotting P4 million for “capacity building” on the appraisal of PPPs by NEDA central and regional offices.

“In view of the thrust of the Duterte administration to facilitate the development and implementation of infrastructure projects outside of Metro Manila, there is a need to capacitate the NEDA Regional Offices (NROs) in appraising projects, including PPPs, due to the anticipated influx of region-specific investments,” according to a reference document for the bid request uploaded on NEDA’s website.

One of the aims of the government is to develop the country’s regions in order to address the rising inequality between the highly urbanized Metro Manila areas and the country’s less-developed rural regions.

28 February 2017
By Danica M. Uy