Source:  Bloomberg

 

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — The Philippines may offer at least two projects to investors under so-called public-private partnership starting this quarter, said Cosette Canilao, officer-in-charge of the program, scaling down a plan to provide 10 projects this year.

“Planning these projects takes a great deal of time to ensure their success,” Canilao said in an interview in her office in Manila yesterday. “We want to create a program that can become a legacy that would solve our nation’s infrastructure needs.”

Delays in the program may undermine President Benigno Aquino’s goal to bolster growth to as much as 8 percent annually to boost jobs and cut poverty. The Philippines competes with the rest of the region for foreign capital to develop its infrastructure as the government seeks to narrow the budget deficit from a record in 2010.

The Philippines may also invite bids to extend railway lines and operate airports after the first quarter of 2012, Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas said in an interview this week. These projects were earlier planned for this year.

Growth in the Philippines’ $200 billion economy slowed for a fourth straight quarter to 3.4 percent in the three months through June.

The government plans to narrow the budget deficit to 2.6 percent of gross domestic product, or about 286 billion pesos, in 2012, from a target of 3 percent, or about 300 billion pesos, this year.

–Editors: Cherian Thomas, Abhay Singh
To contact the reporter on this story: Karl Lester M. Yap in Manila at kyap5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net