Philippine President Benigno Aquino approved on Friday the rollout of an additional 130.65 billion pesos ($2.8 billion) of infrastructure projects, including the upgrade of ageing airports and mass railway transport systems. The National Economic Development Authority Board, an inter-agency body led by Aquino, approved four projects. Two of them will be bid out under the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism, while the rest will be partly funded through loans from multilateral agencies.
The government will tender the 50.15 billion-peso Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 4, and the 64 billion-peso LRT Line 6, said Transport spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal. The foreign-assisted projects are the 3.5 billion-peso redesign of the Naga Airport in central Philippines, and a new 13 billion-peso passenger terminal building at Clark International Airport new north of Manila.
The 74.56 billion-peso Ninoy Aquino International Airport Development Project was deferred pending more information from the Transportation department, same with the 4.9 billion-peso Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit project, said PPP Centre Executive Director Cosette Canilao. In the past five years, the government has awarded $4 billion of infrastructure projects to investors. It has another $12 billion lined up for bidding under the PPP programme. The Philippines, one of Asia's fastest-growing economies, needs $127 billion in infrastructure investments from 2010 to 2020, according to a study of Manila-based Asian Development Bank released in 2010.