The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) play a critical role in helping the government achieve inclusive and sustained economic growth.

At the meeting of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said that through PPPs, the government can tap the private sector’s capacity to provide resources and expertise.

And with the government’s fiscal constraints due to the prolonged pandemic, Balisacan said the private sector also has the ability to undertake projects of significant scale.

“We recognize the potential of PPPs to upgrade the country’s infrastructure, boost the competitiveness of domestic industries, and encourage investments in various sectors that will result in lower prices and improved quality of goods and services,” Balisacan said.

He also expressed the crucial role of the private sector in the government’s strategy to achieve its medium-term macroeconomic targets.

The priorities are outlined in the Marcos Administration’s 8-point Socioeconomic Agenda, which is the framework that will anchor the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan.

“We will utilize PPPs to address the binding constraints to more and higher-quality job creation in the present and future growth drivers, such as the manufacturing, tourism, IT-BPOs, and creative sectors,” Balisacan said.

“They will be a significant contributor to the upgrade of the country’s energy, logistics, transportation, telecommunications, and water infrastructure,” he added.

These sentiments are in line with President Marcos’s statements during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), wherein the chief executive stated that PPPs provide great potential for expansion, infrastructure development, and innovation.

In line with this, Balisacan stated that the NEDA, in coordination with other agencies, is seeking a review of the amended built operate transfer law implementing rules and regulations.

The review aims to address the private sector’s concerns about the viability of PPPs while upholding the government’s objective of protecting the public interest.

“Rest assured that we are committed to a transparent and participatory process of crafting the rules of the game,” Balisacan said.

We are mindful of how investors’ decisions rely on the predictability of such regulations when envisioning their long-term plans that will require significant amounts of resources such as capital and technical expertise,” he added.