The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee will meet this week to finalize the list of roughly P15 trillion infrastructure projects it will submit for approval to the President.
Arsenio Balisacan, NEDA secretary, said during the Makati Business Club’s F2F with Cabinet secretaries held yesterday the finalized list will be submitted for approval of the President in the next NEDA Board meeting scheduled on March 9.
“That list is quite a big number of projects, tentatively we’re talking about 3,700 projects worth P15 trillion in the medium term,” Balisacan said.
“We’re trying to come up, of the 3,700 mentioned, what we may call the flagship infrastructure projects,” he added.
Balisacan also said the number of public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the pipeline at the moment is about 98, worth about P3 trillion.
“On March 9, hopefully the President will approve that, it’s bearing the entire list and we have already identified what are likely PPP but we are open to accommodating any of those candidates for PPP,” Balisacan said.
“I think that tapping the private capital is the way to go, largely because government has no money. We have very limited resources. The fiscal space is very narrow because a lot of the responses to the pandemic have raised the level of debt high. While some say that we have enough space, personally I don’t think so,” he added.
The NEDA chief said the only way to sustain massive infrastructure development both physically and socially is to get the private sector involved, as it is awash with capital.
“But we also have to bring in particularly or make the country attractive to foreign investment,” Balisacan said.
“Our sense is that the only way you can create high quality jobs is (through) increased investment. Without that investment, of course you can create jobs, but those are not jobs that will deliver the poor out of poverty, or that will be able for families to send their kids to school,” Balisacan.
“We want those jobs that are secure, (for example) the manufacturing sector… rain or shine, the job’s there. And realistically, the only way you can get the activity rising is a massive infusion of capital,” he added.
