ABS-CBN News, 18 July 2012
MANILA, Philippines – If the government’s 8 public private partnership projects will be bidded out this year, the Philippine economy may even exceed its growth target of 7-8% for this year, according to a Finance department official.
Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said the Philippine economy performed well in the first quarter of the year despite the absence of government spending, showing that there are strong investments coming from the private sector.
“The economy is growing at a much faster pace because the private sector was spending a lot and they are still waiting for the infrastructure projects that the government will offer through PPPs, so we expect around 2% growth coming from the eight PPPs this year,” he said.
Beltran even noted the government can even surpass its GDP target of 7-8% this year if all 8 PPP projects and government spending were on track.
“Let’s say the economy would grow by 6.4% this year and we’ll add up the 2% points coming from PPP and the the 1.5 percentage points underspending of the government, easily we can grow by 9.9%,” Beltran said.
President Benigno Aquino earlier said that 8 of the 17 PPP projects will be bidded out this year. This includes the Light Rail Transit Line 1 extension and the connector road between the South Luzon and North Luzon Expressways
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