Top officials of the Philippines and Japan agreed to further streamline their respective approval processes and introduce new measures to have a faster implementation of big-ticket infrastructure projects.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who heads the visiting Philippine delegation to the 3rd Philippines-Japan High-Level Meeting of the Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation in Tokyo, said during the session that “significant milestones” had been reached in the processing of the jointly agreed project list between the two countries.
“Now that our plans have progressed, we intend to lay out specific plans on how to expedite the processing and implementation of the flagship projects,” Dominguez said in his opening remarks during the meeting, referring to the infrastructure projects that the Philippines would implement in cooperation with Japan.
Both panels agreed to speed up their respective project approval processes and come up with additional measures “for more efficient decision making, and swift execution such as in project preparation and formulation, due diligence, procurement process and project implementation including land acquisition and resettlement,” Dominguez said.