By Joann Santiago
MANILA, July 3 (PNA) — A BPI Capital executive is optimistic that an infrastructure bond will be initially issued in the Philippines by end-2015.
BPI Capital Officer-in-Charge and Managing Director Reggie Cariaso said they were now in talks with regulators to thresh out issues about a possible infrastructure bond issuance.
He said “there’s a real potential for infrastructure bond” issuance in the domestic economy given strong positive investors sentiment in the country.
“I think that we’re making good progress…We hope that, fingers crossed, (it can be issued) at the end of the year,” he told reporters in a briefing Friday.
Cariaso explained that this type of debt instrument is another great way of funding infrastructure projects aside from the current primary source – the banks.
He said the primary issuer would be the private sector but he declined to elaborate.
The Philippine government earlier indicated interest to issue infrastructure bond to finance projects included in its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.
After the government launched its PPP initiative in 2010, 10 projects have been awarded so far.
Critics have questioned the pace of the awarding of the projects but economic managers attributed the pace to the more stringent bidding processes targeted to address corruptions.
Aside from the awarded projects, 12 more are in the various stages of procurement, three are scheduled for roll-out, six are awaiting government approval and five are undergoing studies.
The current Philippine government targets to increase infrastructure investment to account for about five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2016. As of 2014, it has reached four percent of domestic output. (PNA)