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During his first State of the Nation Address in July 2010, President Benigno Aquino III promised to create more jobs and address the country’s infrastructure bottleneck through the Public-Private Partnership Program.

After two years in office, the President’s PPP remains largely in the preparation stage, with only one out of 10 projects presented to investors in November 2010 auctioned off as of last year.

Newly-appointed Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan admitted that delays hounded the PPP, but brushed them off as “birth pains.”

As of June 27, the PPP Center lined up 21 projects for bidding over the next two years. Of the 21, only the P59.2 billion LRT Line 1 South Extension Project and the P10.04 billion PPP for School Infrastructure Project have progressed to the bidding stage.

The NEDA estimates that the PPP initiative would require up to P739.78 billion in investments until 2016 and would boost the economy and the country's investment rate.

Under its medium-term development plan, the government expects the economy to grow between 7 and 8 percent through 2016. The Aquino administration also aims to raise its investment rate to 18 percent of gross domestic product by the end of its term from the current 14 percent.

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