NEDA Board OKs 194 flagship projects worth P9 trillion

MANILA, Philippines — Some P9 trillion worth of flagship infrastructure projects were approved yesterday by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board as part of the Marcos administration’s efforts to attract more investors, create jobs and reduce poverty.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the approved new list consists of 194 projects, a majority of which are related to physical connectivity and water resources such as irrigation, water supply and flood management.

The list also includes projects on digital connectivity, health, power and energy, agriculture and other infrastructure, he added.

“The new IFPs (infrastructure flagship projects) are seen to address the binding constraints to business investment and expansion that will create more high quality and resilient jobs that will allow us to meet our poverty reduction goals for the medium-term,” Balisacan said at a press briefing.

The board, whose chairman is President Marcos, tasked NEDA as the lead agency that would monitor the implementation of the projects to ensure the quality and timeliness of their execution.

Of the 194 projects, 123 are new or will start to receive funding under the Marcos administration, including the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the North Long Haul Railway and the Metro Cebu Expressway.

Other new projects in the list are the Panay Railway Project, Mindanao Railway Project III, San Mateo Railway; University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital project, and the Ilocos Sur Transbasin Project.

Balisacan said 95 of the infrastructure projects are ongoing and have been approved for implementation while eight have already secured government approval. Forty-seven of them are in the preparation stage, while the remaining 44 are under the pre-project preparation process.

“With respect to these projects that do not have yet feasibility studies, the instruction and the decision of the NEDA Board this morning was to give priority for our DBM (Department of Budget and Management) to give priority to these insofar as providing funding for the preparation of feasibility studies,” the NEDA chief said.

He said the flagship infrastructure projects will be prioritized under the government’s annual budget preparation and enjoy the benefits of expedited issuance of applicable permits and licenses, consistent with legal frameworks.

“These projects will adopt an optimal mix of financing from various development partners, that is ODA (official development assistance), the national government and this general appropriations and the private sector, particularly public-private partnerships,” he said.

To hasten the rollout of the projects, Balisacan said the Marcos administration is “strongly promoting” public-private partnerships (PPPs), one of the crosscutting strategies identified in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028. Forty-five of the projects may be financed through PPPs, he added.

“The government shall harness the financial and technical resources of the private sector which allows the public sector to allocate its funds for greater investment in human capital development, especially to address the scarring in health and education due to the pandemic, and provide targeted assistance that protects vulnerable sectors from economic shocks,” Balisacan said.

The government expects some of the projects to be operational in the next three or four years, including irrigation as well as health projects like the Cancer Center. Balisacan said the projects that do not involve right-of-way issues can be implemented quickly.

“But even then part of the approval of the decision and the directive of the President this morning was to ask ARTA (Anti-Red Tape Authority) to issue or to ensure that the agencies who are involved with issuance of permits, licenses...that they have to give priority to these IFPs,” Balisacan said.

“In the past these have been (the reasons) of some of the bottlenecks. Agencies were so slow in issuing the required permits and licenses. We are undoing many of those problems there,” he added.

Joint venture guidelines

Balisacan said the NEDA Board has also approved the amendments to the 2013 NEDA joint venture guidelines to enhance competition for projects, improve the performance of private sector participants and improve checks and balances to ensure that projects are technically and financially sound.

“The amendments shall also ensure that the guidelines are aligned with the provisions of the recently amended Build Operate Transfer or BOT law implementing rules and regulations and the proposed amendments to the BOT Law or PPP Act pending in Congress but which are expected to be passed by this year,” the NEDA chief said.

Balisacan said the goal is to simplify joint ventures and ensure that they could efficiently and quickly address concerns.

“The amendments will involve putting in place features that improve the competitive processes in the selection of joint venture partners,” he added.

Balisacan said the approval of the infrastructure flagship list and the amendments to the joint venture guidelines is “a giant step” toward the goal of elevating the Philippines competitiveness as a prime investment destination in the region.

“We will connect and integrate markets to enable access to more opportunities for local industries, enhance the productivity of our young and vibrant labor force, and create safer infrastructure for future generations,” he said. –  Louella Desiderio