DAVAO CITY—Construction of the Mindanao railway is expected to start next year, after Japan, China and South Korea expressed interest to fund the project, the National Economic and Development Authority said Thursday.
Economic Planning Secretary and Neda director-general Ernesto Pernia told reporters the 2,000-kilometer Mindanao railway system would likely begin construction in 2017.
“It’s going to start soon, perhaps next year,” Pernia told reporters at the sidelines of the government’s announcement of second-quarter gross domestic product data at SMX Convention Center in this city.
The railway system is expected to connect major cities such as Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Zamboanga, Butuan, Surigao, Davao and General Santos.
Neda deputy director-general Rolando Tungpalan confirmed there were several offers from different countries to finance the project.
“There were offers from the governments of Japan, China, Korea. But right now, the feasibility study is silent about who will finance it,” Tungpalan said.
“It is part of the study to determine the best way to structure the project for the expediency, so we do not want to preempt but we’re aware of the current offers,” Tungpalan said.
Tungpalan said financing could be in the form of official development assistance loans or public-private partnership scheme.
“That will be a decision that will have to await the feasibility study. We don’t want to say PPP because some of it might require just a purely government investment such as the rolling tracks. We have not reached a determination,” he said.
Pernia said four major Filipino companies were also eyeing to join the major project, including San Miguel Corp., Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Ayala Corp. and Megawide Construction Corp.