ADB lauds PH’s infra investment through ‘Build, Build, Build’

FILE: INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT. Asian Development Bank (ADB) Philippines country manager Kelly Bird answers queries from media in a press briefing at the Hotel Radisson Blu Cebu on Friday (April 26, 2019), as ADB program officer, Oscar Badiola, looks on. Bird commended the “Build, Build, Build” program of the national government. (Photo by John Rey Saavedra via PNA)

CEBU CITY — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday lauded the “Build, Build, Build” program of the national government as a demonstration of how it undertakes infrastructure projects with commitment and focus.

ADB Philippines Country Director Kelly Bird said he has seen a lot of progress on how the national government implemented major infrastructure investment projects since President Rodrigo Duterte conceptualized the “Build, Build, Build” program.

Bird also noted that the country is catching up on infrastructure projects with spending that has gone up to 6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at present and targeted to reach 7.4 percent of the GDP in 2022.

He described the government’s handling of infrastructure projects under the program as “relatively fast and much faster than ADB had been done.”

The top ADB official cited the proposed 53.1-km. Clark-Malolos Railway Project which, he said, “demonstrates huge government commitment and focus.”

“We are working as partners. We can prepare them relatively quick at high quality and we started to give them out. So you see more of these major flagship projects coming out this year or next year,” Bird said in a press briefing on the sidelines of a stakeholder discussions on the ADB’s six-year country partnership strategy at the Radisson Blu here.

The railway project is a complex project to prepare but the ADB was able to have it prepared in advance, he said.

The Department of Transportation, which implements transport projects, such the Clark-Malolos Railway Project, “has been very, very active” and made the ADB team and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) team “work very, very hard,” he said.

“We have already put contracts for bidding at the ADB website and we have done it on a relatively short time and the government is committed to have this construction to commence this year,” he said.

Other ADB-assisted projects are the road projects in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, Integrated Flood Control Project in six river basins in Panay island, construction of the New Terminal of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA), and the solid waste management project of the Cebu City government.

Bird noted the significant increase in public spending on infrastructure programs.

“What I really want to highlight here is that the Philippines in the past was underinvested in infrastructure, quite significantly,” he said, citing a 2013 study on public capital stock of countries’ infrastructure, which saw the “Philippines as among the lowest in (the) Southeast Asian region” in terms of infrastructure investment program.

Infrastructure deficit has contributed to slowed GDP growth rate and “reduces country’s competitiveness and does not help the connectivity of regions, communities and people,” he said.