Press Release
31 October 2012
Regional Director Juan Ngalob, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)-Region I, cited the role of infrastructure projects through public-private partnerships (PPP) as a development strategy in attracting investments to the Ilocos Region while providing basic services to the public.
Director Ngalob addressed this to the 27 local government units (LGUs) of Region I that participated in the region-wide PPP Orientation-Workshop organized by the PPP center last October 22, 2012 at the Diego Silang Hall, La Union Provincial Capitol, San Fernando City. The PPP Center conducted the workshop in partnership with the NEDA RO-I and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) RO-I.
The Regional PPP Orientation-Workshop is aimed at providing LGUs the basic understanding of the PPP option for local infrastructure and development projects. Target participants are the various Planning and Development Coordinators (PDCs) and designated Local Economic Investment Promotion Officers (LEIPOs), and local chief executives.
According to Director Ngalob, the Ilocos is predominantly an agricultural economy. “But the regional economy has performed below the national economic performance because the region has been producing limited output. And in order to improve this situation, development intervention and investment infusion is needed to attain economic vibrancy that is equal if not surpassing the national performance.”
“Infrastructures play a big role in attracting investments and this is where PPP comes in,” Director Ngalob added.
In the same venue, DILG Region I Director Corazon Guray stressed that PPP encourages economic competition resulting to lowered cost of projects and their timely delivery.
Director Guray added that through PPP, the use of government resources is optimized leveraging the quality of public service. She also reminded the various LGUs of the region that “identifying PPP projects must be based on the real needs of their locality not on perceived needs.”
The Department of Finance’s Municipal Development Fund Office (MDFO) also joined the Center in the conduct of the regional workshops to promote the PPP Fund. The PPP Fund, sourced from the Municipal Development Fund-Second Generation Fund (MDF-SGF), is a PPP financing window which LGUs can tap to support pre-investment studies that will ensure the viability of their infrastructure development projects.
In all workshops with the PPP Center, participating LGUs are provided free copies of the three-volume LGU PPP Manual which includes discussion on the PPP concepts and framework, project preparation and development processes, and a compilation of template documents and sample PPP project templates for shopping center and public market, government administrative center, and water supply system.
