ADB commits $100 M loan to Phl

MANILA, Philippines - The Asian Development Bank has committed to extend to the government this year a soft loan of around $100 million to finance feasibility studies on infrastructure projects, in the Philippines, economic managers said yesterday.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said would beef up the government’s project preparation fund to accommodate the conduct of studies for for rail, bridge, irrigation and road projects. 

“We have so many projects in the pipeline, they need feasibility studies,” he said in a recent interview. “It (loan) will be available this year for sure.”

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the loan is needed to finance the expanding pipeline of infrastructure projects.

“What happened is that we inherited a very thin pipeline of projects so we need funding to do more project studies, we we’re getting a loan from them (ADB),” he said. “We want it right away.”

Starting this year, the government in the budgeting process the Three Year Rolling Infrastructure Program (TRIP) to ensure the continuity of funding for projects that need to be implemented immediately. Because of this, priority government projects would have a higher level of completion.

The program would ensure the hard budget ceilings of government agencies are optimized in funding infrastructure projects that conform to the priorities in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP).

Projects for inclusion in the program are guaranteed funding for three years provided these well-prepared and ready for implementation.

The three-year program would also ensure the government’s targets for increased investment in public infrastructure is met.

Public infrastructure spending is programmed to be increased to five percent of gross domestic product, from two percent in 2012.

Once TRIP is incorporated in the budget process for fiscal year 2017, government agencies should submit their respective three-year infrastructure programs for the review and compilation of NEDA. The consolidated proposals would then be presented to the NEDA infrastructure committee for approval.

The approved consolidated proposals would then be submitted to the Department of Budget and Management to determine program spending levels and indicative budget ceilings.