Philippine Star, 18 January 2015

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s first Public Private Partnership (PPP) project initiated by a local government unit is up for grabs this month with the bidding of the P400 million Tanauan City public market redevelopment project.

PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao said the Tanauan City government plans to bid out the project within the month after getting the green light from the National Economic and Development Authority – Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC).

“This is the first LGU-PPP project approved by the ICC and we look forward to more local PPP initiatives facilitated by the Center’s PPP capacity building strategy for local governments,” she said.

Canilao said the LGU expects to award the project with a 25-year concession period to the best private partner in March.

The project involves a commercial mall building, as well as separate wet and dry public market facilities.

It is intended to provide a more viable and consumer-friendly public center for commerce especially since the existing market has served as a major fruit and vegetable trading center in the region.

The redeveloped public market would generate employment for the local communities in the city and nearby municipalities as well as improve storage and market facilities for local business.

The new market would also reduce traffic in Tanauan by significantly improving the turnaround time for transporting goods and wares to and from the public market.

Canilao said the current pipeline of projects of the PPP Program has several LGU initiated projects.

The PPP Center launched an LGU PPP strategy in 2013 following its capacity building program that included the development and dissemination of an LGU PPP Manual.

Under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law and its implementing rules and regulations, LGUs could implement PPPs for local infrastructure and development projects.

Based on cost, some locally initiated projects could be approved at the local development council levels and need not go up to the ICC.

Several LGUs awarded contracts to private partners for local development projects using the BOT and its variants during the previous administrations.