Govt drops plan to put up PPP fund

THE government will shelve a plan to put up a fund for Public-Private Partnership investors amid the domestic market’s excess liquidity.

Finance Secretary Cesar Pursima told reporters that the government would defer its plan to provide financial assistance to investors that would qualify for PPP scheme in an effort to decongest the capital markets’ high level of liquidity.

“The capital markets are awash with liquidity. We will only come in when there is a need to intervene,” Purisima said.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said that the money parked in the central bank’s special deposits accounts had reached P1.6 trillion.

The country’s gross international reserves already hit $69 billion in the first half of the year, or near the $70-billion full-year target.
Given this,m Purisima said there is no need for the government to provide financial assistance to PPP proponents.

President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s economic team earlier announced that state pension funds Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System as well as state lenders Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines had committed to put in P50 billion or a total of P200 billion into a fund that the private sector can tap into for the PPP scheme.

The fund was supposed to supplement the equity requirement of investors.

According to Global Source Partners, the Aquino administration’s PPP scheme is unlikely to take off this year because of its thrust for “quality at entry,” the lack of feasibility studies, and the wait-and-see attitude of investors. –KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ REPORTER, Manila Times