NEDA finalizes P15-T projects

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the government is finalizing a list of flagship projects worth P15 trillion that will be up for President Marcos’ approval next month.

During the Makati Business forum on Thursday, Feb. 23, NEDA Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the Cabinet level of the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) will meet this week to set the priority projects of the current administration.

Once the ICC finalized the list, it will then be taken up by the NEDA Board Executive Committee chaired by the President on March 9, Balisacan said.

“That list is quite a big number of projects, tentatively or indicatively we’re talking about 3,700 projects worth P15 trillion in the medium term,” Balisacan said. “On March 9, hopefully the President and the Cabinet will approve that.”

According to Balisacan, the 3,700 will be the “universe” of projects, which includes 190 programs under the Public, Private, Partnership (PPP) scheme, and 98 projects that are already in the pipeline worth P3 trillion.

He added that the list also includes projects that were left behind by the previous administrations, and those which were returned to the proponents.

The 3,700 projects will be in addition to the seven infrastructure projects approved by the president last Feb. 13.

The seven, which Balisacan described as “high impact” projects included the cancer center for the University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH).

The UP-PGH Cancer Center, costing P6 billion, is a solicited Build-Transfer-Operate proposal that will be undertaken under PPP.

President Marcos had also approved four projects to be financed through official development assistance (ODA) loan with a total amount of P117 billion.

Moreover, the NEDA Board approved an increase in cost of the MRT 3 Rehabilitation project by P7.6 billion, from P21.9 billion to P29.6 billion.

The NEDA Board likewise approved the utilization of the JICA loan balance, this is the Japan International Cooperation Agency, of P2.12 billion for the CNS/ATM, that is the Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management, Maintenance and Resiliency Enhancement.

The NEDA Board also confirmed the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) approval of the New Dumaguete Airport Development Project of the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

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The article was originally published in Manila Bulletin and written by Chino S. Leyco.