The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is ready to assist the government to deliver on its ambitious Build, Build, Build infrastructure program, including a $100 million loan to fast track priority projects in transport and water system management, ADB President Takehiko Nakao said.
Economic managers also expressed optimism on the future of nine priority infrastructure projects worth a total of P315 billion that have been submitted for possible Japanese government financing.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III added the meeting focused on informing their Japanese counterparts on how the current administration would firm up the implementation of the projects.
ADB has committed support to the government in three areas — advisory and knowledge sharing, technical assistance, and financial support, Mr. Nakao said.
“The Philippines needs to significantly catch up in infrastructure development to realize its potential and remain competitive,” Nakao said.
“ADB will work with the government through a $100 million technical assistance loan to set up an Infrastructure Preparation and Innovation Facility that will provide knowledge to key line agencies and help fast track priority projects,” he said.
In addition, ADB will provide a $5 million technical assistance grant to support the Build, Build, Build program that will support development of a project management and information system to assist government oversight agencies in monitoring the progress of projects, identify bottlenecks, and deliver approaches for high quality infrastructure preparation and implementation.
Among other support planned by ADB is a project to improve traffic flows along EDSA, Manila’s major artery.
ADB’s Office of Public-Private Partnership is also advising on the planned North-South Rail improvements as well as the new urban center of Clark Green City.
Lack of infrastructure has been identified as one of the most significant constraints to the Philippines’ growth prospects, participants heard.
In 2016-2017, the Philippines was ranked 95th out of 138 countries in terms of infrastructure quality in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index, well below other Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia (24th), Thailand (49th), and Indonesia (60th). In Manila alone, traffic congestion is estimated to cost Php2.4 billion ($47.5 million) per day.