Balisacan to “reinvigorate” PPPs under BBM

Incoming Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Chief Arsenio Balisacan said he plans to “reinvigorate” public-private partnership (PPP) projects under President-elect Bongbong Marcos’ administration.

Balicasan said the President-elect believes the private sector plays a very strong role in economic development.

Balisacan explained: “We should reinvigorate, reexamine and bring back PPPs. We’ll reach out to the private sector. It is my firm view that without the private sector, we can’t really expect to go far.”

Balicasan espoused the same position during the administration of the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III from 2012-2016.

When outgoing President Duterte won in 2016, he unveiled its P8.2-trillion Build, Build, Build program shunning away from PPP projects as it pushed for more government and official development assistance funded projects.

In 2019, the Duterte administration shrank the size of the Build, Build, Build program to P4.7 trillion after scrapping several big ticket projects due to feasibility issues and then expressed openness to more collaborations with the private sector.

Balicasan said he will also focus on boosting the country’s manufacturing sector.

“The lesson of recent history is that if you have a manufacturing sector in the early stages of development, poverty reduction is so fast and likely sustainable,” he said.

He added, “the key is generation of productive jobs… I’ve been talking with policy makers that our manufacturing has to be revived.”