DOTR chief invites biz chambers to invest in big-ticket infra projects

THE Department of Transportation persuaded business chambers on Wednesday to invest in big-ticket infrastructure transport projects.

According to transportation secretary Jaime J. Bautista, he “cajoled top officials of the” European Union-association of South East Asian Nations (Eu-asean) Council and European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) to look into the agency’s projects for possible investments.

He highlighted the “added value of projects” that are being implemented in partnership with international financial institutions, foreign governments and business groups.

Due to budgetary constraints, project financing from foreign business groups presented the most viable option to undertake these projects, Bautista.

“The biggest obstacle has always been fund-sourcing, considering the strained national budget of our government after coming out of the pandemic,” he said.

Bautista dangled projects such as the proposed privatization of theoperations and management of the ninoy Aquino international airport and new Manila international airport as an option for private sector investment.

He also touted infrastructure projects in various transport sectors, such as railways, maritime and road, including the Metro Manila Subway, North-south Commuter Railway (NSCR), LRT 1 Cavite Extension Project, MRT 7, and MRT 4.

“We have offered various infrastructure transport projects to internationalfinancialinstitutions,private investors, and professional associations and industry groups,” he said.

He noted that private sector participation in infrastructure development is an important segment in the new administration’s thrust.

“It’s important because they can assistus in financing the projects through PPP so we hope that the investors from their countries can be supportive of many projects of DOTR. We have PPP projects for airports, rails and for roads and for maritime,” Bautista said.