Aquino pushes for more private-public links
MANILA – The government under President Benigno Simeon Aquino III will further promote private-public partnerships so the country can have more development projects without using up all its financial resources.
“I say PPP will yield good results,” he said during his maiden State of the Nation Address yesterday.
PPP is a strategy that allows private funding to be used for public projects that are needed to promote development nationwide.
To encourage more participation from the private sector, government permits PPP proponents concerned to recoup respective investments and to realize reasonable earnings from their projects.
The President also assured his administration will streamline and reduce the time for processing required business documents so more private sector players can undertake PPP projects.
He encouraged local government units nationwide to do the same.
“I call on LGUs to study respective processes also since these must be aligned with our target reforms,” he said.
The administration is pushing for PPP particularly as government has a budget deficit problem to address.
Malacañang also earlier reported the previous administration already used up a significant part of funds for this year.
Both problems pose stumbling blocks to growth and development nationwide.
“With PPP, however, our economy will grow,” President Aquino said.
The President is bullish about PPP’s viability, noting several local and foreign private sector players already expressed interest to undertake, through such strategy, projects vital to nation-building.
He said these projects include construction of the expressway linking Metro Manila to Cagayan province in northern Philippines.
There are also proposals to lease out Philippine Navy properties in prime business locations so government can have funds to boost its naval fleet, President Aquino added.
He noted that government must increase availability of funds for the purpose since the Philippines’ shoreline covers some 36,000 nautical miles but the navy has 32 ships only.
Most of these ships are of World War II vintage, he said.
Aquino said he also believes the PPP will help boost provision of post-harvest facilities and farm-to-market roads nationwide.
These will help improve the supply chain and eliminate extortion activities against suppliers so food prices can be reduced, President Aquino noted.
“If we fix this chain, we can dream of eventually supplying the world market,” he said.
During his SONA, he reiterated his call for people to help government move the nation forward.
He also reassured his administration’s efforts to address corruption.
These efforts include forming the Truth Commission tasked with gathering evidence on alleged anomalies during previous administrations.
Aquino confirmed he will sign this week the executive order creating this commission.
For the 2010 presidential elections, the President campaigned on a platform geared towards addressing corruption nationwide.
He vowed to pursue this platform during his incumbency. PNA
