MANILA — The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is confident the government will sustain its infrastructure undertaking momentum as it continues to make definite progress in the different phases of project processing.

“Since the start of the current administration, the NEDA Board has approved projects at a quicker pace. The economic and infrastructure team continues to process projects through careful analysis and thorough review,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

Each project in the list of Infrastructure Flagship Program (IFP) undergoes a rigorous process to ensure their technical, financial, economic and social merits before endorsing the same for final approval of the NEDA Board chaired by the President of the Philippines.

“We want to make sure that these processed projects are sound and well-suited for the development of the country, at the national and subnational levels, and are truly responsive to the needs of the people,” he added.

The phases in the processing of projects include the preparation of a project feasibility study (FS), review and analysis of the FS by the implementing agency (IA), evaluation of projects by the Investment Coordination Committee Technical Board (ICC-TB), review and approval of the Investment Coordination Committee Cabinet Committee (ICC-CabCom), before the final approval of the NEDA Board.

Both ICC-TB and ICC-CabCom are NEDA Board inter-agency committees, the former made up of Undersecretaries, the latter of Secretaries.

For being compliant with international standards of service, NEDA was awarded in 2018 with the ISO 9001:2015 Certification for its Quality Management System (QMS) on the agency’s investment programming services, particularly the appraisal of program/project proposals and facilitation of the ICC action.

The NEDA recognizes the need for a strong economic planning agency that will see through the whole of government’s planning cycle from plan formulation to monitoring and evaluation.

NEDA recognizes the need to harmonize plans across agencies and between national and subnational governments, as well as to ensure continuity and viability of programs and projects across political administrations. This will aid in sustaining the country’s progress over the long-term.

“Proposed legislations have been filed in Congress to strengthen NEDA with a bigger role in the implementation of long-term, continuing, integrated and coordinated programs and policies for national development,” Pernia said.

At the Lower House, the committee on economic affairs has approved a substitute bill, also known as the “Economics and Development Planning Act of 2020”, that proposes to convert NEDA into the Department of Economics and Development Planning (DEDP).

One if its main functions is to oversee the government’s investment programming process to ensure that the plans are translated into programs and projects which are responsive to the sectoral goals and outcomes laid out in the Philippine Development Plan.

“This proposed Department would be the country’s primary agency that will make sure that major investment projects are viable, there are no delays in all phases of the project cycle, and are well managed to sustain the infrastructure momentum,” the Cabinet official said. (PR)

Published February 17, 2020