Philippines to push infra, PPP financing across Apec

THE PHILIPPINES’ proposed roadmap for financial integration across the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) will serve to better connect the geographically vast and segmented region, Department of Finance officials said.

During last Friday’s Nikkei Asian Review forum, Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima revealed that, apart from the three earlier proposed pillars under the so-called “Cebu Action Plan,” Apec members had also pushed for the inclusion of a fourth pillar on infrastructure, especially aimed at improving access to financing.

The Philippines’ Finance chief noted that the Asian Development Bank had estimated the infrastructure requirement of Apec economies to cost $8 trillion until 2030.

“We have available funds here in the region. The challenge is to create a financial market so that those funds are actually recycled within the region,” he said.

Also, Finance Undersecretary Jose Emmanuel P. Reverente told reporters that the fourth pillar of the Cebu Action Plan would also tackle the role of public-private partnership (PPP) in infrastructure development.

“Apec has been highlighting PPP, so we will have a separate track where we will compile case studies of PPP projects,” said Reverente, who attended the meeting held in Clark, Pampanga last month.

During the meeting, Filipino finance officials pitched the Cebu Action Plan aimed at making the Asia-Pacific region more financially integrated, transparent and resilient.

The financial integration pillar “calls for measures that will help ease trade and investments among Apec member-economies.”

The financial transparency pillar of the roadmap, meanwhile, aims to “improve openness and efficiency in the use of government resources.”

As for the Cebu Action Plan’s financial resiliency pillar, officials hope to institute measures that will “make financial systems of member-economies resilient enough to withstand risks, including natural disasters and external shocks.”