TOKYO, Japan—Metro Manila’s vehicular traffic congestion is seen to worsen with the forthcoming integration of the economies of Asean next year, given the expected surge in the exchange of goods and services.
This was learned from a Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) officer, who highlighted the need to improve the traffic situation in the Philippines’s capital and key cities around the metropolis.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror on Thursday, Jica Southeast Asia and Pacific Department Advisor Shunei Shinohara said the Aquino administration should fast-track the movement of public-private partnership deals, along with the improvement of transportation systems to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila.
The current traffic situation in Manila is expected to worsen, he said, given that the Asean Economic Integration of 2015 is aimed at boosting the trade of goods and services within the region.
Hence, the expected increase in transport demand.
“In general, the existing issues will be a major roadblock for the Philippines’s transportation sector,” Shinohara said, referring to the lack of infrastructure that resulted in congestion at ports and arteries around Metro Manila.
He urged the administration to prioritize the completion of the P4.76-trillion Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and its Surrounding Areas, otherwise known as the Dream Plan.
“The Dream Plan should be a priority to lessen the congestion in Manila come the Asean integration, as trade would be boosted by the said cooperation,” Shinohara said.
The transport road map was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Board in September this year. The Dream Plan lists the transport infrastructure that the Philippines need to remove potential losses and gain from prospective savings.
Economically, savings would amount to roughly P2.1 billion a day in savings from vehicle operating costs. But if the transport road map would not be implemented through 2030, the Philippines stands to lose roughly P6 billion daily in traffic costs.
Earlier, transport officials conceded that the lack of infrastructure is the Achilles’s Heel of the transportation sector come the Asean Economic Integration.
They said the country’s transport facilities could no longer keep pace with the rate of growth that the Philippines has been posting for the last several quarters.
Major arteries, seaports and aviation hubs have been peaking to barge past into their maximum capacities, causing congestion that has stirred anger among commuters and losses in logistics costs.
To address this, the government has been aggressively rolling out key infrastructure deals that are aimed at improving the traffic situation in key cities in the Philippines.