Sweden offers engineering know-how for ‘Build, Build, Build’
A SWEDISH delegation met with the Department of Finance (DoF) to offer engineering solutions for the government’s infrastructure buildup, the DoF said.
Swedish Ambassador to the Philippines Harald Fries and Business Sweden country manager for the Philippines Ulf Wennblom told Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III in a March 1 meeting the Volvo Group and the Saab group showed interest in participating in the infrastructure program.
“The ‘Build, Build, Build’ program generates a lot of interest among Swedish businesses,” said Mr. Fries.
“For infrastructure, we sell sustainable solutions. We have many decades of successful work in this area in Sweden. The Swedish infrastructure minister has invited Transportation Secretary Arthur [P.] Tugade to Sweden to study how we do it,” he added.
Mr. Wennblom, meanwhile, said his organization has been “in close contact” with the Transportation department in addressing traffic congestion, such as the possible provision of passenger buses along EDSA as an alternative to the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) system.
“We also want to take that forward and build an efficient line on EDSA by integrating rail, buses, and other means of transport to have a complete transport system throughout Metro Manila,” Mr. Wennblom said during the meeting.
Mr. Dominguez, meanwhile, asked for integrated solutions from Sweden that would link the country’s various transport systems.
He cited the need for “extensive planning on the road and rail networks that need to be built to ensure seamless travel,” to and from airports.
“We need to know how much rail we need to go there, how long will be the highways, we have to connect and I think your engineering support can help us,” Mr. Dominguez said.
“We have so many opportunities in the Philippines to improve the situation,” he added.
The DoF said that Mr. Dominguez mentioned the plan to relocate the current airport in Zamboanga City.
The government seeks to spend a total of about P8.4 trillion in infrastructure until the end of its term, in a bid to boost the economy to grow 7-8% starting this year from 6.9% in 2016, and slash poverty incidence to 13-15% from 21.6% in 2015.
Both parties also discussed the need to update the Philippines- Sweden tax treaty to reflect new global standards on the exchange of information between countries, electronic governance, and bilateral trade.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ( BSP) data show that foreign direct investment inflows from Sweden amounted to $440,000 in 2017. —