The Asian Development Bank said Wednesday it will team up with the Mindanao Development Authority to develop a public-private-partnership center in Mindanao.
ADB country manager Richard Bolt said this would be the first extension project of the PPP program in the country.
“We will help MinDA to establish a PPP center which will be an extension of the national program,” Bolt told reporters during ADB’s year-end briefing in Mandaluyong City.
Bolt said the establishment of a PPP center in Mindanao would be one of the first few steps to build the local capacities of the PPP.
He said aside from the national projects included in the PPP pipeline, there were also projects in rural areas which could be implemented under the same scheme.
Bolt said these projects included solid waste management, water supply sanitation and regional expressways.
“Those are the things that need regional perspectives and definitely some national perspectives. So the idea is to build a capacity of agencies, such as MinDA, to play their role in that,” Bolt said.
He said ADB would assist MinDA to conduct value-for-money analysis in proposed PPP projects.
“One of the first steps of any PPP project is to do this value-for-money analysis. And if it looks like something that can get private sector involvement, there is sufficient incentive for private sector to get involved,” Bolt said.
“It is to help MinDA to do that calculation. MinDA’s responsibility is on regional development planning and monitoring. It’s to help them to understand within the plan what is for PPP and what is for public investment,” he said.
The PPP program is the Aquino administration’s centerpiece infrastructure program.
The government has so far awarded 10 projects under the PPP program, with 14 other projects in different stages of procurement, two other projects for roll-out, four projects for government approval and four projects with on-going studies.
The awarded projects were Daang Hari – South Luzon Expressway Link Road, PPP for School Infrastructure Project (Phase 1), Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway Project (Phase 2), Modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center, Automatic Fare Collection System, Mactan-Cebu International Airport Passenger Terminal Building, Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite Extension and Operation and Maintenance and the Integrated Transport System-Southwest Terminal Project.
National Economic and Development Authority director general Arsenio Balisacan earlier said the implementation of the PPP projects was expected to spur the growth of the economy in the remaining months of the year.
“I think we have also many big PPP projects in the pipeline that we’re waiting for and are being implemented and will accelerate implementation. These will add to the impetus for growth in the coming quarters and years,” Balisacan said.
