APEC Members Seen to Attract More PPP Investments

(PNA) — The Philippines and other 20 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have huge potential to attract more private sector investments in “viable and well-structured” public-private partnership (PPP) projects, particularly urban infrastructure.

Guillermo Luz, APEC Business Advisory Council alternate member, expressed this as the amount of funding for development of the infrastructure across the APEC region is getting bigger mainly due to urbanization.

“To extent that there is some form of predictability behind the projects, predictability will give I think investors a sense of the viability of the projects,” he said in a press briefing on the sidelines of APEC meetings here.

Luz stressed that PPP projects should be also “purposely planned” in a bid to attract more private sector investments.

“(For instance,) if people begin to see that housing and commercial developments and others are built, the role mass transit infrastructure will be justified… If there is nothing there, no one will invest,” he said.

For his part, Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Partnership (APIP) chair Mark Johnson said it is also imperative that APEC economies will create regulatory structures to deal with the issues of pricing and taxes, among others.

Johnson also underscored the role of infrastructure in facilitating the movement of people through ports, airports and roads; and in achieving inclusive economies.

“If you want a more inclusive economy, people have to make use of that (projects) to move around; businesses (also should be) able to have much greater mobility,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the theme of the country’s hosting of APEC Summit this year is “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World.”

The APEC is composed of 21 member economies: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America; and Viet Nam. (PNA) LGI/LDV