UK-based Partnerships Bulletin, recognized the Public-Private Partnership Center, the lead coordinating and monitoring agency of the Philippine PPP Program, as the Gold Award winner for the Best Central Government PPP Promoter during its annual Partnerships Awards, held last June 5, 2014 in London. This is the first for the country and the first in Southeast Asia.
The Partnerships Awards Night, which gathered 700 participants from the world’s most respected PPP industry players, lauded the Philippines’ PPP Center’s work in building up the Philippine PPP Program’s pipeline, rolling out diligently structured projects, improving policies, processes, and capacitating PPP institutions.
The other finalists include the Croatia’s Agency for Public-Private-Partnership, California’s Department of Transportation, Maryland’s Department of Transportation Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Puerto Rico’s Public-Private Partnerships Authority, the Scottish Futures Trust, Texas’ Department of Transportation, and the Unidade Central de PPP of the Government of Minas Gerais of Brasil.
“We are most grateful for the recognition and we share this with all who continuously support the PPP Center to deliver its mandate”, says PPP Center Deputy Executive Director Sherry Ann Austria who accepted the Gold Award Trophy on behalf the Center’s Executive Director, Undersecretary Cosette V. Canilao.
Canilao echoed this response. “The PPP Center is both honored and humbled by this recognition from one of the PPP industry’s prestigious organization looking at the global PPP industry. This is an affirmation that we are doing the right thing in aggressively promoting and facilitating PPPs as a viable option in pursuing the country’s critical infrastructure and development requirements. This is also a challenge to our ongoing efforts in further improving the way we do PPPs in the country”.
The PPP Center was created by Executive No. 8 in 2010 out of the former Build-Operate-Transfer Center (BOTC) which evolved from the former Coordinating Council of the Philippine Assistance Program (CCPAP) in the 1990s. In 2013, Executive Order No. 136 created a PPP Governing Board which provides the Center policy and strategic direction. Both issuances further institutionalized the PPP Center’s Project Development and Monitoring Facility (PDMF), now also recognized as an innovative approach in affording implementing agencies access to international expertise and experience in developing good PPP transactions, from project preparation stages up to actual procurement and award.
With this expanded authority over all PPP mechanisms in both national and local infrastructure and development sectors, the Center embarked on a focused effort to capacitate implementing agencies to diligently structure PPP projects and institutionalize a robust PPP Program pipeline while at the same time pursuing policy and process improvements.
Four years after, the PPP Program pipeline now include more than fifty (50) critical infrastructure and development projects with an estimated total amount of US$ 22.05 Billion, not including twenty-eight (28) projects with no estimated cost yet. Out of this pipeline, seven (7) have reached successful award, three (3) under advanced stages of procurement, four (4) for roll-out, five (5) are currently being reviewed for the appropriate government approvals. All others are in various stages of project structuring and development, mostly with support from the PDMF.
The performance of the PPP Program and the recognition it is getting are certainly not just to the credit of the PPP Center, Canilao pointed out. “We are encouraged by the commitment of the implementing agencies to work hand in hand with the PPP Center and the experts we employed to diligently structure these projects and move them through procurement and award stages, with utmost regard for the legal and procedural requirements as well as the principles of transparency and accountability”.
Aside from implementing agencies, oversight agencies such as NEDA, DOF, and other inter-agency committees are to be credited as well for the success of the PPP Program. They provide the implementing agencies and the PPP Center critical planning, policy, and institutional guidance on the PPP projects as well as policies and procedures.
The other major help to the PPP Program and the PPP Center is coming from the development partners through technical assistance in the areas of project development, policy reforms and capacity building. In 2011, a Capacity Development Technical Assistance (CDTA) for the Strengthening of the Philippine PPP Program until 2016 was undertaken by the Philippine government with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) along with the governments of Australia and Canada.
Of course, the private sector’s confidence in the PPP Program is most important. “We are inspired by the very positive response from the private sector. Their eagerness to participate in these projects and to contribute towards institutionalizing more efficient ways of delivering critical development requirements is the key element in this thriving PPP program”, Canilao further noted.
Canilao also acknowledged the PPP Governing Board for their leadership and guidance and the PPP Center officers and staff for their hard work and commitment. In the end, there has to be PPP champions who will push for the Program through all of its hurdles”, she said.
