Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told finance ministers and investors at the eighth World Bank-Singapore Infrastructure Finance Summit in Singapore that the Philippines will continue to improve its project approval and execution processes to help pare down unnecessary financing costs.
At the summit in Singapore, Dominguez said the Philippines is continuously upgrading the institutional processes on approving and executing big-ticket infrastructure projects to speed up the implementation of its ambitious “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program consisting of 75 flagship projects worth a combined $170 billion over the next five years.
“We continue to improve the institutional processes regarding project approval and execution. It is our desire the see the strategic projects completed at the shortest possible time in order to immediately realize their economic value and lessen unnecessary financing costs,” Domingez said.
He added the measures the government undertook to speed up project implementation include advancing right-of-way acquisition and land resettlement prior to loan signing and the designation of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as procurement agent.
The government also frontloaded budget allocations for its counterpart funding commitments and established project monitoring offices to closely observe the completion of projects.
Complementary to the BBB program is the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program seen helping raise the country’s tax effort above the Association of Southeast Asian Nations average and provide a steady revenue stream for the government’s infra buildup program.
The Department of Finance, along with the National Economic and Development Authority, are completing the guidelines under the “3-in-1” process in which the approval of the Neda Board, the forward obligational authority of the DBM and special presidential authority are issued all at once rather than over several weeks or months as was done previously.
The traditional public-private partnership method was also modified to a “hybrid PPP” model, so that the government now implements the projects using a combination of its own budget, inflows from so-called official development assistance and funds raised from bond floats at investment-grade rates to speed up project execution, reduce completion risks and deliver the economic benefits to the people as soon as possible, Dominguez said.
“In the Philippines the infrastructure program is at the core of our strategy for rapid and inclusive growth. With the highest multiplier effects, investments in infrastructure enable us to stimulate economic expansion,” he said.
Of the 75 flagship projects under the BBB, 23 are “shovel-ready,” while the rest are expected to pass the approval process within the year.