The private sector is keen to pursue partnerships with the government on projects related to health care, skills development, education and the supply chain.

At the recent Pilipinas Conference 2022, Rizalinda Mantaring,

Christian Gonzalez, International Container Terminal Services Inc. executive vice president and chief risk officer, noted opportunities in health care and the supply chain.

“There are other opportunities in health care, tremendous opportunity for private (companies) to get involved and to share the burden with the government,” Gonzalez said.

“Also transparency in the supply chain… to have an end-to-end system to bring the product on time,” Gonzalez added.

Makati Business Club treasurer, has recommended that the government tap public-private partnership (PPP) to build a skills development corporation similar to India so that graduates are employable.

“Because in order to generate jobs, you have to have the right skills and we are proposing (to the government) is, first of all, go to the private sector and redefine the K-12 program so graduates are employable,” Mantaring said.

“India has the national skills development corporation which is a PPP, 49 percent owned by the government and 51 percent owned by the private sector. It was founded in 2010. There is a skills council, they  first analyze the skills gap and define the training program/curriculum to be able to close the skills gap and then have an accreditation and certification program. It also funds a training institution,” she added.

“Anything can be done in PPP. The framework is there on how to do it. The good thing about PPP is that it’s output driven rather than input driven. As long as the government agency is clear to what they want to achieve and what are the service level they want to get from the private sector, anything can be done by PPP,” said Cosette Canilao, Aboitiz InfraCapital president and chief executive officer and former PPP Center executive director.

Canilao said the government can tap the private sector, be it in technology, knowledge or money to deliver services via PPP. – Myla Iglesias