Philippines urged to address infrastructure challenges

To achieve high, sustainable growth

MANILA, Philippines — The government will need to quickly address issues in infrastructure to achieve high and sustainable growth, according to think tank GlobalSource Partners.

“Sound infrastructure is one big challenge to the Philippines’ bid for high and sustainable economic growth. Unless the issue of infrastructure is decisively and quickly addressed, it may instead drag the momentum of growth down,” GlobalSource Partners country analysts Diwa Guinigundo and Wilhelmina Manalac said.

They said the new infrastructure projects approved recently by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board chaired by President Marcos could simply lengthen the government’s list of infrastructure deliverables.

New projects approved by the NEDA Board earlier this month are the Facility for Accelerating Studies for Infrastructure Project (FAST-Infra Project) and the Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools (ISRS) Project.

With a project cost of P2.75 billion, the FAST-Infra Project aims to develop a robust transportation infrastructure investment program in line with the Philippines’ sustainable development goals.

Meanwhile, the ISRS would involve the repair, rehabilitation, retrofitting and reconstruction of schools destroyed by natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes.

Also approved earlier this month were extension of the implementation period and loan validity of the Support for Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling Project, as well as the extension of implementation period of the LRT Line 2 East extension project.

While the approval and completion of these key infrastructure projects would lead to more efficient production and distribution of goods, as well as encourage more foreign investments into the country, Guinigundo and Manalac cited the pace at which projects are being completed.

Of the 13 projects aimed at establishing physical connectivity, water resources, digital connectivity and health, the NEDA reported as of end-November 2023 that only one was completed last year in the Visayas.

All the other 12 will be completed this year.

“With the new projects, and many others still to be completed, the list of flagship projects continues to lengthen; the likelihood of everything being completed becomes uncertain,” Guinigundo and Manalac said.

There are 185 infrastructure flagship projects (IFPs) worth over P9 trillion under the government’s list of priority projects.

As priority projects, the IFPs will be provided the necessary support for efficient and faster implementation.

The government is aiming to achieve six to seven percent economic growth this year.

In the first quarter, the economy expanded by 5.7 percent, slower than the 6.4 percent growth in the same quarter in 2023, but faster than the 5.5 percent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2023.