Philippines committed to Davao upgrade
The Philippines Port Authority remains committed to modernising the port of Davao and a future privatisation has not been ruled out, but plans to spend some P19bn as part of a public-private partnership have definitely been shelved.
As reported in Port Strategy in December, the planned Davao-Sasa modernisation project attracted multiple bidders before the privatisation process was scrapped amid much confusion.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 9th Philippines Ports and Shipping 2017 conference held in Manila this week, Jay Daniel R Santiago, general manager of PPA, told PS the privatisation of Davao was “an ambitious development project which warrants review in order to fully establish its financial viability given the magnitude of investment and scale of development being proposed vis-à-vis its return on investment”.
He said that while the PPA recognised the urgent need to upgrade Davao port to enable it to deliver the level of productivity and efficiency available at other ports, PPA now intends “to maintain Davao-Sasa as a government-operated port”.
However, he said the PPA had not ruled out “the possibility of privatising it in the future under any of the schemes allowed in the PPA Charter”.
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