Press Release
25 October 2014
A leading international financial information group invited the Philippine government through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP)Center to join the gathering of global infrastructure fund managers and asset owners, institutional investors, infrastructure developers and other foreign government and multi-lateral agencies at London, England last week.
The Private Equity International (PEI), a financial information group dedicated to the alternative asset class of private equity globally, requested the PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao to be one of the speakers at the Infrastructure Investor: Emerging Markets Forum 2014 in London, England.
The two-day forum aims to provide insights from leading figures on the goals, challenges, risks and opportunities associated with emerging market infrastructure developments.
During the forum, Executive Director Canilao discussed the government’s role in accelerating infrastructure development and creating a framework attractive to private sector investment.
She also presented the various PPP investments opportunities in the country, PPP projects open to bidding, and the status of awarded projects. So far, the Philippines has already awarded eight (8) projects through the public-private partnership program.
The highlight of her talk was the sharing of the Philippines’ experience in building up the country’s PPP program through the PPP Center and major efforts in the areas of policy and process improvements, project development and structuring, capacity building, continuous dialogue with the market, and public communications.
This experience has in fact been considered a source of learning for countries in the Asia-Pacific Region developing their own PPP programs. Recently, the royal governments of Tonga and Bhutan visited the country to gain insights and study the Philippines PPP program.
Canilao reiterated in the forum the different key success factors of the government’s PPP program.
“The key success factors of the Philippines PPP program are the Project Development and Monitoring Facility and active Public-Private Partnership Center (PPPC) facilitation during project preparation”, she said.
She also stressed the importance of a streamlined evaluation process for PPP projects.
“Another success factor is the streamlined PPP evaluation process with core Technical Working Group composed of PPPC, Department of Finance, National Economic and Development Authority and Department of Environment and National Resources”, she added.
The government is currently pushing for the amendment of the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) law into the PPP Act to facilitate more private sector investments in key infrastructure and development sectors and to ensure sustainability of the program.
