SOURCE: DOF Website

The Philippine government in cooperation with its partners in the private sector will be holding Infrastructure Philippines from November 17 to 19, 2010. The milestone conference will examine investment opportunities, profiles of public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the Philippines, as well as policy, regulatory, and legal concerns in developing the infrastructure sector in the country. It will be held at the Manila Marriott Hotel in Pasay City.

“The PPP Agenda is a strategy to address the lack of infrastructure in the country. Public Private Partnerships in infrastructure is a strategy used all over the world to augment and complement public investments in infrastructure,” explained Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima.

During the conference, the country’s economic managers will introduce the country’s revitalized PPP framework under the leadership of President Aquino. They will discuss the government’s new efforts to improve project development, project review and approval, project financing and risk allocation in project structuring, project execution and project monitoring. Implementing agencies such as DPWH and DOTC will also be presenting their pipeline of infrastructure projects for possible private-public partnerships as well as their planned timelines for bidding out these projects.

“The new government is faced with decade-old problems which have discouraged private sector investments in infrastructure. We’re not saying this will be fixed overnight but we’re saying that we know the problem and the entire economic team is aggressively finding ways to solve these problems soonest. We are committed to build the institutional framework that will allow government to smoothly undertake PPP transactions,” Secretary Purisima added.

“The biggest draw of the Philippines right now to investors is that they are confident that the country’s new leadership will ensure a level playing field. There’s a new sheriff in town and the private sector knows he means business. No secret deals, no under the table transactions. Everything will be done in broad daylight. That’s the big difference. That’s the message we’re sending out during the conference.”