Aquino urged to appoint ‘PPP czar’

The Aquino administration needs a single point-person, preferably with a Cabinet rank, that will form consistent rules in the implementation of priority infrastructure projects, diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. said.

For the government’s economic program to succeed, SMC vice president Lorenzo Formoso III said investors would need the assurance that there would be no sudden policy shifts that might undermine the financial viability of state-solicited projects undertaken by private players.

He said this would facilitate the acceleration of spending for the country’s infrastructure sector to allow the Philippines to catch up with its neighbors in the region.

“There needs to be a PPP czar with cabinet rank to be the government’s point person for infrastructure development,” Formoso said at the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex) 43rd annual conference yesterday.

PPP refers to the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) funding scheme for big-ticket projects unveiled last year by President Aquino himself. The government has since switched to a preference for official development assistance (ODA) loans from foreign donors to fund projects, although the list of projects has not been changed.

Formoso noted that many big-ticket projects in the past have suffered from changes in rules in the “middle of the game.” Regulators also have the tendency to buckle to public pressure against any increase in fees, resulting in losses due to forgone revenues being shouldered by the private investor.

Having a single official for infrastructure to oversee the many projects being handled separately by other agencies and departments could help “reduce the lag time from conceptualization to implementation.”

Private companies also have their own roles to do. Instead of just reacting to the government’s own plans, Formoso said private firms needed to actively work with policymakers to formulate development strategies that would ensure inclusive economic growth.