{"id":167143,"date":"2018-06-16T06:31:16","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T10:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=167143"},"modified":"2018-06-16T06:31:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T10:31:16","slug":"demand-key-factor-in-rollout-of-flagship-infra-projects-dof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/16\/demand-key-factor-in-rollout-of-flagship-infra-projects-dof\/","title":{"rendered":"Demand key factor in rollout of flagship infra projects: DOF"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has told United States officials that public demand was a key consideration for the Duterte administration in deciding which big-ticket infrastructure projects to roll out as part of its \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d program. (Photo: KING RODRIGUEZ\/ Presidential Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has told United States officials that public demand was a key consideration for the Duterte administration in deciding which big-ticket infrastructure projects to roll out as part of its \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d program.<\/p>\n

This is to ensure, said Dominguez, that the government would be able to generate adequate returns on its huge investments and pay off loans obtained to finance these projects.<\/p>\n

Dominguez cited as an example a former US military base, the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, which would be transformed into New Clark City to decongest Metro Manila and make it the Philippines\u2019 next metropolis.<\/p>\n

As part of the government\u2019s 75 flagship projects under the \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d program, New Clark City will also include the expansion of the existing Clark International Airport as an alternative to the overcrowded Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).<\/p>\n

New Clark City will also be the site of the country\u2019s disaster-resilient alternative government center, Dominguez told Deputy Assistant Secretaries Geoffrey Okamoto and Robert Kaproth of the US Department of the Treasury during a recent meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not going to make a mistake of going into projects that we don’t have a demand for. We are not going to fall into this trap of \u2018build it and they will come.\u2019 We’re going to start the project where we are already behind, like our airports, our Manila transportation system, our railways. We’re already far behind the rest,\u201d Dominguez said during the meeting.<\/p>\n

In the case of New Clark City, Dominguez said there is already a demand for this type of project, as development needs to spread towards north of Metro Manila to decongest the national capital region\u2019s overly populated urban hub where the daily road traffic volume has led to massive productivity and revenue losses.<\/p>\n

In an earlier briefing with reporters, Dominguez said the big-ticket infrastructure projects that the government wants to build are \u201clong overdue\u201d and thus, have a ready demand and need that people are willing to pay for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not guessing here. There is already a need, a demand there. (This is) long overdue,\u201d Dominguez said during the recent press briefing, citing as an example the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project in Northern Luzon, which is being funded with a concessional loan from China.<\/p>\n

Dominguez was responding to reporters\u2019 queries at that time about the possibility of falling into a \u201cdebt trap\u201d like what had happened to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you borrow money for projects that don\u2019t already have a demand there\u2019s a chance that your estimates are going to be wrong and your revenues are not going to be enough,\u201d he said during the press briefing. \u201cHowever, what are we borrowing for? We are borrowing for things (where we) already have the demand\u2026people are willing to pay for that and people need that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has told United States officials that public demand was a key consideration for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":91615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[13684,6434],"class_list":["post-167143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-finance-secretary-carlos-dominguez-iii","tag-infra-projects","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}