Around 80 percent of the government’s flagship infrastructure projects have been approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board, said Karl Kendrick Chua, socioeconomic chief.
Chua, whose appointment as NEDA secretary has been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments (CA) yesterday, said during the CA hearing at the Senate that 112 projects have been identified in the latest list of flagship projects.
Of that figure, 51 are in the construction stage, while 31 are in pre-construction.
Chua said 17 are being processed in the investment coordination committee (ICC), four are still waiting for feasibility study, while the remaining nine are with the agencies.
“We continuously review our infrastructure flagship projects, and in the latest approval by the NEDA Board, 112 were identified, (and) 80 percent actually have already been approved by the NEDA Board, so we are moving fast,” Chua told senators and congressmen who are members of the CA.
“However, for approval of projects, we of course have to be mindful of the mandate of the ICC and that is to ensure that all the projects are well-designed, the proponents are financially capable, and that they will not add to future burden to the people in terms of payments or contingent liability. If there are incomplete submissions… we have to return those…until they are complete, so that we can see the whole picture, when we approve such projects,” he added.
Chua also said 30 of the flagship projects are proposed to be in the pipeline for the next administration, to avoid one to two years spent on project preparation at the start of an administration’s term.
Chua also pointed out that as NEDA chief, he noticed a regional inequity in infrastructure.
“That is why I requested the NEDA regional offices to be more proactive to determine what are the needs of the various regions in terms of projects, so that they can be adequately considered by the Department of Budget and Management once we go through that preparation of the national expenditure plan,” Chua said.
“But as you know, many big projects really take many years, sometimes beyond administration, but what we have done in the infrastructure projects is not to propose a super big one, we propose it by stages… so that we can focus on a particular segment, deliver it, show result, then we move to the next,” he added. – Angela Celis
