The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently launched the Philippines Public–Private Partnership (PPP) Monitor (the PPP Monitor). ADB’s Office of Markets Development and Public-Private Partnerships (OMDP), which leads the Bank’s work on PPPs, explains how the Philippines has shaped its legal framework to streamline PPPs.
What are Public-Private Partnerships or PPPs?
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are contractual arrangements where a government partners with the private sector to build and manage public infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, renewable energy plants, hospitals, and schools.
PPPs may also be used by government to bring in the private sector to manage existing public infrastructure more efficiently. Although the public sector retains ultimate responsibility for service delivery, allocation of skills, assets, and/or financial resources of the public and private sectors are done in a complementary manner, thereby sharing the risks and rewards, to seek to provide optimal service delivery and good value to end users.
What is the PPP Monitor?
The PPP Monitor is a flagship publication of ADB. It’s a downloadable report profiling the current state of the PPP enabling environment in ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs) in Asia and the Pacific. The PPP Monitor also features a data-driven, interactive online version that allows users to compare the key PPP parameters and attributes across the featured DMCs.
Who can use the PPP Monitor?
The PPP Monitor provides the investor community with business intelligence on the enabling environment, policies, priority sectors, and deals to help investors make informed investment decisions.
For ADB’s client DMCs, the PPP Monitor serves as a diagnostic tool to identify gaps in their legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks.
ADB and other international development agencies can also benefit from the PPP Monitor, as it helps assess a country’s readiness to implement PPPs to develop and sustain its infrastructure.
What are the key takeaways from the Philippines PPP Monitor?
- The Philippines has well-developed national, sectoral, and local PPP ecosystems, but it still has vast unrealized potential for private sector investment in PPPs. Challenges remain which hinder PPP development, procurement, and implementation.
- The Philippine Government has actively pursued efforts to address regulatory roadblocks to private sector investment in infrastructure, including lifting foreign ownership restrictions on certain sectors, enacting the PPP Code, and prioritizing bills to improve institutional arrangements and introduce reforms in key sectors such as water. The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 highlights the importance of PPPs at the national and local levels. One of its strategic action plans is to examine unique PPP transaction arrangements with the private sector, especially in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
- ADB works with the Philippines to create a strong enabling environment for PPPs, fostering private sector development by promoting green growth and PPPs, one of the key strategic priorities of ADB’s Philippines country partnership strategy 2024-2029. ADB helped the Philippines to develop its PPP Code, which became a law in 2023, and its implementing rules and regulations issued in 2024.
- ADB’s partnership with the Philippines is a successful one, with the country now one of ADB’s largest client DMCs.
How many PPPs have been developed in the Philippines?
From 1990 to 2023, about 305 PPP projects have been developed in sectors including roads, railways, airports, ports, energy, water and wastewater, ICT, agriculture and fisheries, social infrastructure, and solid waste.
What challenges exist in the PPP landscape?
Significant progress has been made in improving the PPP landscape, especially in enacting the new PPP Code and building capacity at national and local implementing agencies. However, challenges remain, including delays in right-of-way or site acquisition by the government, political and regulatory risks, challenges within the implementing agencies such as weak absorptive capacity and coordination, and climate impacts.
What is ADB doing to support PPPs in the Philippines?
In addition to helping the government to develop the PPP Code, ADB has been in close partnership with the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines (PPP Center) since it was established in 2010, with support focused on strengthening governance, advancing PPP advocacy, and building its capacity along with that of other implementing agencies.
In December 2024, ADB approved a $30 million loan to replenish the Project Development and Monitoring Facility—a revolving facility managed by the PPP Center. This facility provides funding for feasibility studies, project structuring, and transaction advisory services, which helps agencies to bring well-prepared, bankable PPP projects to market. This ensures the government can continue building its PPP pipeline and expanding support to both national agencies and local government units.
ADB has also been supporting the Philippine Government by providing transaction advisory services. ADB also provides capacity building assistance to local government units.