ASEAN countries are discussing possible ways to overcome so-called infrastructure constraints and improve project and program connectivity in the region, according to the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.
This was one of the key highlights of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Asean Integration Summit 2015
in Singapore.
“[The summit] tackled the role of regional infrastructure cooperation in growth and integration and the various projects for improved and integrated roads, railways, air[ports], [sea]ports, and energy and telecommunication networks for the Asean [region],” the PPP Center said.
The PPP Center also said that one of the session, chaired by PPP Center Deputy Executive Director Eleazar E. Ricote, tackled physical connectivity as prerequisite for shared economic growth.
The session similarly discussed Asean country infrastructure development requirements to spur intra-regional trade and regional demand.
“One of topic highlights to accelerate the necessary private investment in the region through overcoming challenges on PPP,” the PPP Center said.
In the first Asean PPP Forum in Manila last December, the Philippine government encouraged Asean members to create a regional PPP Center in the Philippines.
The center aims to explore the possibility of creating a fund to support PPP projects in the region.
The forum was conducted in support of the Master Plan on Asean Connectivity, which seeks to address the region’s infrastructure constraints ahead of the Asean Economic Community.
Apart from a regional institution, PPP Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao said setting up a fund, similar to the country’s Project Development and Monitoring Fund (PDMF) could help Asean countries design PPP projects.
Canilao said the creation of the revolving PDMF, which is used to finance prefeasibility studies for PPPs that result in economically viable projects, is a critical factor in the success of PPPs in the country, and, possibly for Asean member-countries, as well.