Sen. Escudero Urges Private Sector to Take Advantage of PPP Opportunities

Senator Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero has urged the private sector to take advantage of government’s public-private-partnership (PPP) opportunities apart from infrastructure related projects.

Escudero was one of the speakers on Sunday at the concluding program of the three-day Open Collaboration with East Asia News (OCEAN) Champions 2014 Summit held at Movenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu.

The summit was an extension of the World Economic Forum East Asia Summit held in Manila last week.

Escudero said although there are 47 PPP projects in the pipeline that the private sector can participate in, there are actually other options that private establishments can do to help the government such as handling other processes that are traditionally handled by the government.

He cited the issuance of drivers license and emission standard testing, among others, that are done by the private sector.

He cited other PPP opportunities for the private sector such as education, security, and energy.

Escudero said government services will be more efficient if taken over by the private sector.

This time, he said the Philippines will move from exercising its traditional role, to embracing the untraditional role like letting the expertise and competence of the private sector to serve the taxpaying public, while providing strong and effective legal framework and policies.

“There is so much that both the private sector and government can collaborate on in PPPs that are not only limited to infrastructure works like road networks and airports,” he said.

The country’s 47 PPPs has an estimated economic value of P376 billion or approximately 16 percent of the annual budget of the national government.

“We should work towards increasing this, so much so, that the bigger chunk of the expenditures will now be performed by the private sector,” he said. (PNA) LGI/EB