More int'l investors interested in PPP projects — Finance chief

The government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program for infrastructure continues to attract strong interest among foreign investors, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said Thursday. The program seeks private investment to finance public development and infrastructure projects. Earlier, PPP Center chief Cosette Canilao said that investors from Japan, China and the UK have conveyed interest in the Ninoy Aquino Expressway Phase II project and the Light Rail Transit Cavite extension project — two of the eight PPP projects that the government believes can be launched this year. Now, according to Purisima, Australian investors have also expressed interest. “A lot of companies are interested. We met with several companies and a lot of them expressed desire to come to Manila,” said the Finance chief, who led a government team in a no-deal roadshow in Australia early this month. Purisima also said that the PPP projects are expected to roll out at a faster pace now that the government has already cleared the bottlenecks. Because of the strong foreign investor interest in the projects, the PPP Center has proposed a review of the Constitutional limit on foreign ownership with a view to the government's relaxing the limit. "We are looking at that," Canilao said in an earlier interview. — BM, GMA News