Construction

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) mobilized $8.3 billion for private sector projects in the region, a 15% increase over last year and a new record for the multilateral.

The P542.48-million Tacloban By-Pass Road along Daang Maharlika Highway will be completed in April of this year, according to Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar. 

The investor’s conference for the P1.47 billion ($32.75 million New Nayong Pilipino at Entertainment City PPP Project is a) tourism-oriented facility is set on February 9, at Makati Shangri-La. 

Beijing has agreed to study Manila’s proposal to implement through hybrid or co-financing arrangements with multilateral institutions the big-ticket Philippine projects that had been submitted to China for possible funding by the Duterte administration. 

A total of 64 big-ticket projects ranging from major road networks, railway systems and bus rapid transit systems to airport and seaport modernization are either for implementation or in the pipeline as part of the Duterte administration’s envisioned “golden age of infrastructure.” 

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) recently released a coffee table book entitled “Samu’t Saring Kwentong Kalye Vol. 1,” containing inspiring stories on how good local roads and bridges provide better access and improve the lives of the people in rural Luzon. 

The Department of Transportation (DOTr)is bidding out the five regional airports after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board the unbundling of these airport Public-Private Program deals. 

Raising sufficient rev­enues for tax reform to fund ambitious in­frastructure buildup of the administration rather than relying primarily on bor­rowings, is necessary to keep the budget deficit within the manageable level of 3 per­cent of GDP beginning 2017, said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

The Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) seeking to fast track the processing of applications of various housing permits, licenses and clearances such as Locational Clearance (LC), Development Permit (DP), Certificate of Registration, and License to Sell of subdivision and condominium projects.

The Duterte admin­istration’s ambitious program to ramp up investments in in­frastructure is meant not only to improve connectivity and boost economic productivity in the countryside, but also to develop the country’s emer­gency response system and better protect its communities most vulnerable to natural di­sasters.