The Philippines government is scheduled to spend a total of PHP 4.9 trillion (USD 99 billion) on infrastructure projects over the next four years as a continuation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program even after his term ends in 2022.
The spending is equivalent to a yearly expenditure of above PHP 1 trillion (USD 20 billion), or over 5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), until 2024, according to the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s (DBCC) website. Breakdown of these annual targets are as follows:
- 2021 – PHP1.02 trillion (USD21 billion), 5.1% of GDP
- 2022 – PHP1.251 trillion (USD25 billion), 5.7% of GDP
- 2023 – PHP1.26 trillion (USD26 billion), 5.2% of GDP
- 2024 – PHP1.32 billion (USD27 billion), 5% of GDP
In early June this year, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said 30 projects would be turned over for implementation by the next administration in 2022. Therefore, it would have a ready pipeline to sustain robust infrastructure spending, which is expected to help the economy recover from the pandemic-induced recession.
The “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program was launched in 2016 when the Duterte administration entered into office. It has a PHP 8 trillion (USD 162 billion) budget until the end of President Duterte’s term in mid-2022.
The program covers a wide range of infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, airports, health facilities, water, sanitation, flood control, and digital infrastructure like the national ID system.
(Sources: BusinessMirror, BusinessWorld, Inquirer.Net)
