The British government awarded a grant worth £90,112 (US$110.035) to the Philippines through the Public-Private Partnership Center (PPPC) to further support the country’s PPP program and attract participation of foreign investors in PPP projects.

In a ceremony held in Makati on October 24, the British Ambassador to the Philippines Honorable Asif A. Ahmad, National Economic and Development Authority’s Deputy Director General Rolando G. Tungpalan and PPPC Officer-in-Charge Atty. Frances P. Domingo signed the grant contract with funding period from October 2016 to March 2017. The grant will finance the development of the Foreign Investment Framework for PPPs Project.

The Foreign Investment Framework for PPPs Project aims to develop a legal and commercial framework that is envisioned to attract more foreign investors in the Philippine PPP market, making it globally competitive, notwithstanding the constitutional limitations on foreign equity ownership. This project is focused and aligned with two of UK’s priority areas in the Philippines and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region namely, infrastructure and finance.

The project has two phases. The first phase involves the development of a foreign investment framework and corresponding policy instruments to enable increased investment in PPP Operation & Maintenance (O&M) companies. The second phase is the promotion campaign which involves conduct of capacity building activities to educate government agencies, financial institutions, and other relevant stakeholders on the proposed framework and policy instruments.