Philippines to revise 'Build, Build, Build' plan to make it more achievable

MANILA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - The Philippines is carrying out
an inventory of infrastructure projects under its ambitious
six-year, $180 billion "Build, Build, Build" programme to come
up with a more realistic list of projects.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia told Reuters the
government was "trimming" the list of 75 flagship projects it
had promised to deliver or at least start and "substituting with
others more economically feasible and doable".
President Rodrigo Duterte's government has promised to usher
in a "golden age of infrastructure" by building and modernising
airports and ports, and lifting economic growth in the country
of more than 107 million people.
But its plan has hit snags, the most recent of which is the
delay in the approval of this year's budget, forcing economic
managers to trim their growth target for this year to 6% to 7%
from 7% to 8%.
In a separate media briefing on Friday, Pernia said the
revised list could even reach 100 projects as they replace big
ones with many smaller but "game-changing projects" like roads,
bridges and irrigation systems that will benefit provinces not
included in the original list.
Pernia said the government has struck three long-bridge
projects costing 161 billion ($3.14 billion) off the original
list because they are "not economically viable" and tough to
build because the technology is not yet available.
Not all of the projects in the revised list, which will be
released next week, will be finished during Duterte's term, but
"half of the 100 will be either completed or started, that is
for sure," Pernia said. Duterte's six-year term ends in 2022.
The government has planned to finance the projects through
its budget, official development assistance, private sector
funds and loans.
ING economist Nicholas Mapa said the scaled-down plan should
still give the economy a boost.
"Regardless of scale and scope, chasing the golden age of
infrastructure will go a long way to helping clear out the
decades-long backlog of infra development, and this should be
growth-positive both in the near term and medium term as our
productive capacity increases", Mapa said.
($1 = 51.2000 Philippine pesos)