Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista has urged American business leaders to invest in infrastructure projects in the Philippines, particularly the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), which is being privatized by the government as these are the projects where the private sector support is most needed.
In a panel discussion during the Philippine Economic Briefing in San Francisco, California on Wednesday, Nov. 15 (Nov. 16 Philippine time), Bautista said these projects include the country's airports, railways and rapid transit. In particular, he cited NAIA.
Bautista said these projects, which are part of the government's privatization rollouts, need the experts of foreign investors. He said, these projects "really need the support from the private sector."
So far, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has received eight interested bidders who bought the bidding documents for the operations and maintenance of NAIA.
"We are now in the process of meeting these prospective bidders and we hope that by Dec. 27, they will submit their proposal and we’ll be able to award this project by the first quarter of 2024," remarked Bautista.
The agency previously revealed six of the bidders for the airport namely San Miguel Holdings Corp., Asian Airport Consortium, Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC), GMR Airports International BV, Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., and Spark 888 Management.
Turkish airport operator Limak Group and the Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) of South Korea were also reportedly included as bidders.
Other projects he mentioned were the DOTr's current partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to "finalize the terms of reference (TOR) for operations and maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-3 along Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA)," which he hopes will be operated by the private sector by July 2025.
The secretary noted the success of the privatization and maintenance of Light Rail Transit (LRT)-1, now operated by the Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) to push for the same initiative for MRT-3.
The DOTr is also preparing the privatization and maintenance of the 147 kilometer North-South Commuter railway system from Clark Airport to Calamba, Laguna; along with the operation and maintenance of the 33 kilometer Metro Manila Subway.
Lastly, the agency is also "finalizing the Cebu Rapid Transit and the Davao High Priority Transport System, which will require investments from the private sector in terms of providing funding for buses," he added.
The secretary mentioned that the DOTr has been able to secure investment approval for 11 projects with an estimated project cost of $6.6 billion. Eight of the projects are Foreign-assisted and the remaining three are funded through public-private partnerships (PPPs).
"Currently, there are around 29 upcoming and ongoing foreign assisted project contract packages amounting to $3 billion the foreign investors should watch out for," said Bautista.
To date, the DOTr has a total of 197 infrastructure flagship projects (IFPs) approved by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), with an accumulative cost of P8 trillion. 73 of those projects are undertaken by the agency, valued at P5 billion.
Including the 73 IFPs, the agency handles over 160 projects across the project development cycle, he added.
"Our transport projects highlight the efforts of our government in pushing the infrastructure agenda of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who wants us to improve mobility and connectivity," said the secretary.