Source: Business Mirror, 29 March 2012
The British government expressed its support for the unveiling of a three-volume public-private partnership (PPP) manual for local government units (LGUs).
In a statement, British Deputy Ambassador Trevor Lewis congratulated the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board and the PPP Center for providing templates and guidelines for the LGUs in the Enhanced PPP Manual.
Lewis said the UK government fully supports the Aquino administration’s PPP initiative and vowed to continue sharing the UK’s experience and expertise to help the Philippine government gain insights on how to further strengthen its program for economic growth.
“As a pioneer in public-private partnerships, UK involvement in PPP contracts has become one of our important exports to the world. The United Kingdom’s experience with PPPs has been extensive and will continue well into the future. Our government estimates that in the next five years, the majority of the £200 billion worth of infrastructure investments will be financed by the private sector. To support this, our government recently launched a National Infrastructure Plan that identifies Infrastructure UK as the lead agency in ensuring that the private sector meets the challenge of providing the needed investments in transport, waste management and devolved administration of public services,” he added.
The Neda and the PPP Center recently conducted a forum to guide and encourage the LGUs to boost economic development using the PPP scheme.
Neda Director General Cayetano Paderanga Jr. presented the PPP Manual for Local Governments, which aims to provide information on the PPP and help the local governments undertake PPP projects such as those for transportation, energy and irrigation, schools and hospitals.
Through these guidelines, the LGUs will be able to finance the infrastructure projects they need without relying entirely on the national government. This can be done, Paderanga said, because the country currently enjoys good financial standing.
As with all procurement processes, the PPP process requires carefully studied feasibility studies, knowledge of commercial viability and interest, procurement procedures and contract management.
The British Embassy has been supportive of the Philippines’s PPP initiative. It has funded an experience-sharing workshop that brought in experts from the UK who provided a number of case studies for the Philippine government in tailoring its own PPP scheme to fit its unique development needs.
It also supported delivery of training workshops to enhance capacity of government agencies to develop business cases on viable public projects and apply risk analyses to determine correct partners.
Earlier, Paderanga said the national government’s allocation of P1.18 trillion for various infrastructure projects under the General Appropriations Act of 2012 was still insufficient to make up for government’s infrastructure under-spending.
He added that the total infrastructure allocation is a 25.6-percent increase over the 2011 allocation and represents 1.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year. Paderanga said the national government has released P141.8 billion of this allocation this year.
