Bringing Private Sector Power to the Province

Local governments in the Philippines have undertaken successful PPP projects in the water sector. Photo credit: ADB.

Share on:           

Published:

How local governments in the Philippines are successfully forging multi-million dollar public-private partnership deals.

Introduction

Statement of Issue

The Philippine infrastructure gap is prominent at the local government level. In the Philippine Development Plan for 2011-2016, the public-private partnership program was identified as the main mechanism through which infrastructure development can be accelerated and inclusive economic growth can be attained.

Drawing on lessons of the successful revival of the Philippine public-private partnership program, the study examines past experiences of public-private partnership projects of local government units in the Philippines and provides solutions for:

  • Helping local government units prepare bankable public-private partnerships
  • Ensuring efficient project procurement
  • Enhancing financial viability of public-private partnerships
  • Strengthening local government unit’s public-private partnerships legal and institutional frameworks to enable leveraging more private investment in local economic and social infrastructure
Challenges

Lack of technical and financial resources for project preparation, monitoring, and implementation has always been cited and continues to be a major impediment to local government units undertaking public-private partnership projects.

To successfully implement public-private partnerships, these needs should be addressed simultaneously and comprehensively via technical assistance and financing facilities

Lessons

Lessons learned from the study can be found in the following areas:

National Government Level

At the national level, the success of public-private partnerships involve the President setting the policy direction, cabinet members providing the technical and financial resources and the regulation and clear definition of the role of the private sector in public-private partnerships.

Local Level

Factors for success at the local level include strict adhesion to a build operate transfer law and other relevant laws involving transparency, projects that are viable and attractive enough for the private sector, and a reasonably large number of potential investors with managerial, technical and financial capabilities.

Technical Assistance

Recognizing the need for technical assistance to identify viable partnerships, to help prepare and bid out projects successfully, and in monitoring, implementing and evaluating projects contribute to overall success of public-private partnerships.

Financing Facilities

Success factors include offering low interest rates to make financing attractive to local government units, regular monitoring, and financially viable projects.

Aziz Haydarov
Project Administration Unit Head, Human and Social Development Sector Office, Sectors Group, Asian Development Bank

Aziz Haydarov is the project administration unit head for the Central, West, and East Asia team of the Human Development Sector Office of the Sectors Group in Asian Development Bank. Prior to his current role, he was a young professional (Economics), country economist, infrastructure economist, senior portfolio management specialist, and senior financial sector specialist in ADB. Previously, he was the World Bank’s country officer for Tajikistan.

Follow Aziz Haydarov on
Leave your question or comment in the section below:
Disclaimer

The views expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term “country” in this document, ADB does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area.