FILIPINO businessmen demanded that they be allowed to participate in identifying and scrutinizing government projects with costs P100 million and above, including those falling under the government-to-government category, to make sure that the a similar mess as the botched national broadband network  deal with Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. (ZTE) will not be repeated.

Ambassador Donald Dee, chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), said his group will start reviewing some 30 projects listed under the administration’s Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan.

Dee said the chamber has informed President Arroyo of this, and she has given her approval.

He said the PCCI wants to be included in the monitoring in every step of the way, from the prebidding and implementation of the projects.

“This is to make sure that these projects are properly handled,” Dee said.

The problem with the ZTE contract, he said, is that it just suddenly popped out and before they could ask that it be made public, all the controversies involving different personalities started to surface.  

Because of this, Dee said discussions whether the project is really important for the development of the country or not have been buried.

Now, Dee said even government-to-government contracts should be reviewed by the private sector to make everything transparent and avoid a similar problem.

Also, Dee said the private sector wants to have a role in identifying the projects that should be prioritized by the government for implementation.

After lining up the priority projects, Dee said the PCCI will also conduct the studies needed to determine the costs and viability before they are bid out.

“Once we see the projects we really need, we will be able to concentrate on them. Through this also, we will have a more transparent process,” Dee said.

He noted there are several projects that are currently proceeding without hitches simply because they were not hidden from the consciousness of the public like the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

FILIPINO businessmen demanded that they be allowed to participate in identifying and scrutinizing government projects with costs P100 million and above, including those falling under the government-to-government category, to make sure that the a similar mess as the botched national broadband network  deal with Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. (ZTE) will not be repeated.

THE government will be presenting China Ocean Shipping Group Co. (Cosco) more prospective sites for its proposed transshipment hub in the country, after several more provinces joined early frontrunners Sangley Point, Cavite and Subic Bay Freeport in the selection process.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is apprehensive over the prospects that the Philippines would lose some $419 million worth of potential revenues from farm exports to Japan if a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Tokyo is scuttled.

BEFORE the Philippines can achieve inclusive growth or a broad-based economic growth that spreads to the masses, several institutional and governance issues must first be resolved, according to a working paper for the Economics and Research Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

THE continuous strengthening of the peso against the dollar has helped cushion the impact of the continuous increase in world oil prices on local petroleum prices, Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes said Tuesday.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The Department of Agriculture (DA), through its attached agency Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), has encouraged households to go into backyard farming to support their daily needs in vegetables.

SUBIC—Once a devastated ghost town after the American military left, made worse by the thick blanket of lahar that almost buried it from the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, Subic has since risen phoenix-like from the ashes and now appears to be bursting at the seams from the flood of investments that has come its way since 1997.