PCCI pushes revival of pure PPP scheme

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) wants the government to revive the push for a pure public-private partnership (PPP) scheme to accelerate the implementation of infrastructure projects.

“We are aware that there are ongoing infrastructure projects but one area that they have to review is maybe revive the PPP,” PCCI president George Barcelon said on the sidelines of the 43rd Philippine Business Conference yesterday.

“You can do different models, there is ODA (official development assistance), PPP, and there is hybrid. But we should continue with the PPP. We should be aware of the factors that can make things happen faster,” he added.

Barcelon said top Philippine companies like Ayala, SM, Megaworld, San Miguel, JG Summit and ICTSI are ready to finance these PPP projects. 

“So the thinking is there. It has always been there. It’s just that the perception since the start, we saw during the trips of the President, that it has always been ODA from China so it seemed as if the private sector has been drowned and set aside. But it’s there,” he said.

Barcelon said the government should also look heavily for private sector investments for the planned massive rebuilding program in Marawi instead of relying too much on ODAs.

President Duterte on Tuesday declared Marawi City as liberated from terrorist control, marking the beginning of rehabilitation.

“I don’t think we should be looking at ODA to rebuild the city. It should be private sector initiative. There are financings like from the World Bank, they’ve been voicing out that they will help out. But I would think that the government is aware that when they talk about this rebuilding of Marawi, it’s going to be private sector led,” Barcelon said.

The Duterte administration has expressed inclination towards the hybrid PPP approach.

Under the hybrid PPP model, the government will finance the construction of the infrastructure, while the operations and maintenance will be auctioned to the private sector later.

Economic managers have said the government would prefer a hybrid approach for PPP infrastructure projects to significantly reduce the project bidding period, which on the average took 29 months to take off in previous PPP projects.