P337-B flagship projects tagged for Northern Luzon

TALAVERA, Nueva Ecija – Sixty six so-called flagship projects with an aggregate cost of P336.67 billion have been identified for implementation for Northern Luzon under the Arroyo administration.

Presidential Assistant for Northern Luzon and former House Assistant Majority Leader Renato Diaz told The STAR that of the projects identified by his office, five are energy and power-related projects, 24 for water, 27 for infrastructure and 10 for trade.

These projects are being eyed for implementation in Northwestern Luzon, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Aurora province.

Diaz said that of the 66 projects, the transportation and infrastructure sector will have the largest investment worth P154.6 billion or 46 percent of the total cost covering 27 projects, trade and industry, P71.4 billion; water resources P61 billion; and power and energy, P47 billion.

He said that the projects will involve large-scale private sector participation through the build-operate-transfer (BOT) or joint venture schemes and those to be financed under loan proceeds from the country’s Official Development Assistance (ODA).

These include international funding agencies such as the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the Obuchi and Miyazawa Funds and donor agencies from Australia, Austria, Germany, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Part of the energy projects are Luzon transmission lines and sub-stations in Cagayan Valley and the Luzon Grid transmission associated with private sector projects such as the Ilijan Greenfield and Casecnan Hydropower projects covering Regions 1 to 3, the Bakun Hydroelectric Power (BHP) and the San Roque Multi-purpose Project’s (SRMPP) power component in CAR and Region I and the power component of the Casecnan Multi-purpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMIPP).