British government backs Philippines' PPP program

MANILA, Philippines - The British government announced yesterday that they will support the Philippines’ public private partnership (PPP) project by helping the country address issues including legal and regulatory concerns.

As a bid of support, the British Embassy will be rolling out a capacity-building workshop called “Experience-Sharing and Workshop on Public-Private Partnership” in partnership with the La Liga Policy Institute, Code: (RED) Reforms for Economic Development and PPP Center.

Edward Farquharson and James Ballingall of the Infrastructure United Kingdom of Her Majesty’s Treasury will come over to Manila and share the British experience on PPPs. Her Majesty’s Treasury is the UK’s Economics and Finance Ministry with functions similar to the Philippine Department of Finance and the National Economic and Development Authority.

The experience- and knowledge-sharing on PPP will help the Aquino government learn a strategy or two from these experts. The experience-sharing will be done through a capacity-building workshop to be held on March 8-9, 2011. Industry experts, practitioners, and other stakeholders in the Philippine infrastructure development program are expected to participate.

The workshop will also serve as a venue for addressing issues endemic to PPP such as: (a) inadequacy of PPP policy, legal and regulatory frameworks, (b) insufficiency of institutional set-up and capacity to effectively promote and implement PPP projects, (c) insufficiency of the system and capacity to prepare bankable PPP projects, and (d) lack of long-term financing and credible risk guarantee mechanisms for PPP projects as identified in an Asian Development Bank study.

To initially address these issues, the Aquino administration has revised the existing PPP framework to attract private capital by providing a level playing field with reasonable returns and appropriate risk-sharing without compromising the public interest.

According to the National Economic and Development Authority, a PPP is a contractual arrangement between government and the private sector to deliver public infrastructure and/or public services. The project shall be structured so that the private sector gets a reasonable rate of return from its contribution while risk allocation is optimized between the parties. This will minimize costs and realize the project’s developmental objectives.