The government’s Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) is set to meet this week to finalize a list of some P15 trillion worth of projects that will be presented to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. next month.
This was as the President on Thursday said he believes it is “only a matter of time” before ordinary Filipinos start feeling the effects of economic growth in the country.
According to National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, the ICC Cabinet Committee (ICC-CabCom) meeting will establish the list that will include the eventual flagship projects of the current administration, GMA News reported.
Balisacan said some 190 of the projects are tentatively set to be undertaken through public-private partnership (PPP), of which 98 are already in the pipeline and estimated to be worth P3 trillion.
The final list will then be taken up by the NEDA Board Executive Committee — chaired by the President — when it meets in two weeks’ time on March 9.
In a related development, Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koshikawa Kazuhiko expressed optimism that the PH economy “will show top-class growth” among its Asian neighbors and will “attract more Japanese investors in the coming years.”
“Hopefully the President will approve that. It’s bearing the entire list and we have already identified what is likely PPP (public private partnership), but we are open to accommodating any of those as candidates for PPP,” Balisacan said.
The list also includes projects prepared by earlier administrations and those returned to the proponents, which Balisacan said should be accepted if they satisfy the standards of the current administration.
NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon earlier said the Marcos administration has already identified some 206 big-ticket projects under its infrastructure program, but these are still being evaluated for viability.
Mr. Marcos made his latest remark on growth in a Facebook post as he welcomed a report showing that investments registered with the Board of Investments (BOI) reached more than P414 billion in the first 40 days of 2023.
This amount accounts for more than 40 percent of the country’s P1-trillion investment target for the year.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual, who chairs the BOI, revised the bureau’s investment approval targets from P1 trillion to P1.5 trillion this year.
In his speech before Filipino and foreign government officials and businessmen to celebrate the birthday of His Majesty Emperor Naruhito of Japan in Taguig City on Monday, Kazuhiko cited the basic policies of President Marcos, which are “clearly laid out” for Philippine-Japan relations.
According to the Japanese diplomat, since 2019, both countries have made “significant strides in our economic cooperation.”
However, he noted that it is not only the economy that Japan focuses on.
Tokyo is also supportive of the country in other “critical and emerging” areas, such as smart and sustainable agriculture, disaster prevention, health, human resource development, and space technology development, the envoy said.
In the field of defense, Japan stands with the Philippines “in maintaining a stable regional order to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific founded on universal values of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law,” Kazuhiko noted.
On Monday, Mr. Marcos called on key government agencies to intensify efforts to uplift the people’s economic condition, saying that their hard work would go to waste “if it is not felt by ordinary Filipinos.”
The Philippines posted a 7.6 percent full-year growth in 2022, the highest in 46 years since the country recorded an 8.8 percent growth in 1976.
