The government plans to amend the implementing rules and regulations of the Build-Operate-Transfer Law to improve the investment climate and attract more private investors in infrastructure projects, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday.
“We are planning to, in fact, amend some of the provisions in the implementing rules and regulations [of] the public-private partnership to really attract the private sector to participate in our ‘Build, Build, Build’ program,” said Diokno in an interview.
Diokno did not specify which provisions in the IRR of the BOT Law would be amended.
The government recently revised the IRR of Republic Act No. 6957, or the law authorizing the financing, construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure projects by the private sector, as amended by RA 7718.
The revised guidelines recognize the indispensable role of the private sector as the main engine for national growth and development and provide the most appropriate incentives to mobilize private resources for the purpose of implementing infrastructure or development projects normally undertaken by the government, which includes the construction, financing, operations and maintenance of such projects.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in his first State-of-the-Nation Address that infrastructure development would remain a top priority of the government to drive employment, agriculture, tourism and economic growth.
The Marcos administration plans to interconnect the archipelago and sustain infrastructure investments at 5 to 6 percent of the gross domestic product annually until 2028.
Infrastructure development will focus on mass transit, railway systems, airports and seaports.
Diokno said the Duterte administration turned over to the Marcos administration several big ticket projects.
The Department of Public Works and Highways listed on its website the priority projects under PPP, including several expressways.
Diokno said the rapid expansion of the economy would generate higher tax revenues that would finance infrastructure development.
He said better tax administration through digitalization in the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue could substantially increase government revenues.
The plan to rightsize the bureaucracy could also lead to more efficient government operations and better delivery of public services, he said.
Diokno said the amendments to the almost century-old Public Service Act would be a complementary reform that would encourage investors to come in and implement some of the projects under PPP.
“Now, foreign investors can participate in key areas―telecommunication, toll roads, shipping, airports –and they can own them 100 percent. I think with that combination―with the PPP projects and the new environment―I think we will be attracting a lot of foreign direct investments into the country,” Diokno said.