‘We need more roads, modern airports and seaports. The backlog on these projects is just too big,’ says former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno
The business community had high hopes that the Aquino administration would usher in a new age of economic renaissance for the Philippines when it took the helm of government in 2010.
This sense of anticipation was heightened further when the President unveiled the cornerstone of his plan to boost the economy and bring the country on par with its rapidly developing neighbors—an innovative scheme called the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program that would harness the resources of the private sector toward state-directed spending priorities, especially in the infrastructure sector where the Philippines lags far behind its regional neighbors.
Five years later, however, the promise of PPP remains largely a potential except for a smattering of relatively small deals that are now underway but will, in all likelihood, not be completed by the time the administration leaves office in mid-2016.
For the most part, the businessmen who were counting on these projects to move the country higher up the competitiveness chain have resigned themselves to the reality that the burden of closing the economic gap between the Philippines and the other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), for example, will fall on the shoulders of the next administration.
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) president Edgardo Lacson said his to-do list for the next administration was a long one. But the top item was creating job-generating opportunities.
He also stressed the importance of ensuring easy access to affordable education; developing and strengthening the agricultural sector, and providing the public with easy access to shelter.”
