BRITAIN has expressed concern on the delays of British proposals for the public-private partnership (PPP) projects which are pending since June, saying private investors in the United Kingdom are still in a “wait and see” situation.
British Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Lillie said British interests in the PPP projects in the Philippines include operation and management of infrastructure,particularly railway systems.
Since Britain is known as having one of the world’s most efficient railway system, there are applications for specific services, he said, among which is the engineering on existing rail-transit system in the Philippines, the Light Railway Transit 1 and 2 and Metro Rail Transit.
This developed as Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Francis Chua, in a message at the opening of the 20th Mindanao Business Conference (MinBizCon) in Zamboanga del Sur province, presented President Aquino a set of priorities to ensure PPP success.
Chua, in a message read on his behalf by PCCI Vice President for Mindanao Edwin Capili, enumerated the set of priorities as 1) effective coordination within the Philippine bureaucracy, 2) a clear policy framework supported by a legal structure and 3) political will. “Putting the right policies in place is critical in solving the challenges of modernizing national structure. This is an essential requirement for business efficiency and stimulating new investments,” Chua said.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), meanwhile, meanwhile, admitted that that the need of the government for consultants and transaction advisers for PPP projects was greater than what the Aquino government anticipated.
In his speech at the PPP Capacity Building workshop sponsored by the British Embassy, NEDA Director General Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. said having enough experts working on PPPs is one of the key competencies needed to make the initiative a success.
“We’re looking for consultants to try to help us in putting up PPPs. We’ve also started looking at more possible transaction advisers. It really dawned on me how (much) actually we lack these kinds of competencies in the Philippines contrary to what my initial impression was. There is a dearth because the [number of] potential [projects] to work on was large,” Paderanga said.
Ambassador Lillie said: “There are a lot of [British] projects for PPP that are under review and there are delays [in the release of review].” He issued the statement at the launch of the support program for PPP projects held on Thursday at the Astoria Plaza in Ortigas.
He said PPP contracts, mostly involving private investors from Britain, have become the UK’s important exports to the world. He said British PPP projects also include e-learning systems in Qatar, a S$1.8-billion Singapore Sports hub and railways system in Malaysia.
“The fact is that our private sector has huge expertise in all aspects of PPP, from project design through to delivery, from engineering consultancy through to legal and financial aspects,” said Lillie in his speech at the forum.
He also revealed that the Lord Mayor of the city of London is also planning to visit the Philippines next year, with a delegation of businessmen from the UK’s financial sector, many of whom are equipped with PPP expertise.
“But in the truest sense of public-private partnership, this is not just about supporting our private companies to win projects, it’s about sharing our public-sector expertise with our Philippine counterparts,” Lillie stressed.
Derek Page, director for trade and investment in the British Embassy in Manila, said his government is waiting for the Department of Transportation and Communications to “clarify timetable for the priority projects.”
It will be recalled that Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas decided in June to hold PPP projects already in the pipeline and such move has caused massive delays in the approval of British proposals.
Page said there are at least seven British projects under the PPP program that have been affected by Roxas’s decision.
“We are waiting for fresh statements, we want to make sure what are the priority [PPP] projects of the Philippine government, once we know that, we will [be able] to broadcast it to the British private investors,” said Page.
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By: E. Torres, C. Ordinario and B. Garcia
Source: Business Mirror, Sept. 8, 2011
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