The Department of Transportation (DOTr) yesterday asked banks and financial institutions to support the government’s major infrastructure projects in the next five to six years particularly the airport projects.
“In the Department of Transportation, we are excited in implementing all our programs and projects. We need support for the financing of some of our major projects, especially in financing our airport projects, so I invite our bankers and financiers to please support these programs. We will see to it that we will have programs that will provide accessible and affordable and safe travel experience,” Jaime Bautista, DOTr secretary, said at the Philippine Economic Briefing in Singapore.
Bautista expects the major infrastructure projects in railways, roads and airports to provide thousands of jobs for Filipinos.
For the airport sector, he said DOTr has three major projects in the pipeline that will be implemented in the next five to six years: San Miguel Corp.’s New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, Sangley airport which will require a $5 billion initial investments to construct one runway that will accommodate 60 million passengers per year, and the modernization of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“We’re also looking at implementing the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) in Cebu, Davao modernized bus rapid transit, all these projects will provide employment,” he added.
For the rail sector, DOTr is prioritizing the six major rail projects targeted to be completed by 2025 to 2029, said Bautista.
These projects include the Metro Rail Transit line 7, Light Rail Transit line 1 extension to Cavite, North and South Commuter Rail, Metro Manila Subway, among others.
Meanwhile, Manuel Bonoan, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary, said during the forum the agency’s total investment portfolio in the next six years is estimated at about $140 billion to $158 billion if it is going to spend 5 to 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
“Many of our projects are now in the process of project preparations and I guess all these projects have to be financed either through official development assistance, through multilateral institutions or bilateral agreements,” Bonoan said.
“Also, we encourage the private sector to continue to invest in our programs, most specially in the expressway programs we intend to extend in the next six years,” he added.
Earlier, Bonoan said the government targets to further increase the country’s high standard highways from 510 kilometers to 1,816 km based on the Master Plan on Network Development Phase I and II.
DPWH will also fast-track the completion of the projects under the Luzon Expressway Network program to reduce the travel time from Ilocos to Bicol from 20 hours to 9 hours.
Expanding the country’s highways and expressways network will alleviate the over-concentration of the population and development in the urban areas and will give way to regional development.
DPWH will also prioritize the construction of more bridges crossing Pasig River, Marikina River and the Manggahan floodway to improve the logistics network of Metro Manila and inter-island mega bridges.
