President Duterte’s administration aims to make infrastructure building and investment a centerpiece of his government by launching the Build Build Build program.
Many have long cited the Philippines’ lack of infrastructure as its economic development’s “Achilles’ heel.”
The BBB program will raise investment spending from 2.9% of the country’s GPD to about 7.3%, equivalent to Php 8 trillion to 9 trillion between 2016 to 2022, to address its infrastructure needs (Build build build, 2021).
Importance of infrastructure in developing economies
Infrastructure in developing and emerging economies is crucial in alleviating poverty and creating opportunities and thousands if not millions of jobs. President Duterte’s BBB project has employed around 6.5 million workers (Build Build Build, 2021).
The construction of infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, sewage, electricity, and flood protection systems will enable public and private investors to gain capital appreciation while providing critical infrastructure needs of its residents (Stein, 2018).
Building and investing in infrastructure resilience can also improve the county’s adaptive capacity against climate change impacts.
Infrastructure is the backbone of a country’s economic growth and development.
In emerging economies like the Philippines, whose government is heavily investing in infrastructure, infrastructure asset management can help the country sustainably manage capital-intensive infrastructure projects over their entire lifespan (Infrastructure Asset Management, n.d.).
Infrastructure Asset Management ensures that public and private infrastructure investments are not wasted and provides adequate services for its communities for many generations.
The additional threats posed by climate change, the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, rapid urbanization, population growth, and advances in digital technology make a compelling case for adopting an infrastructure asset management program.
Business World reports that the Philippines released its national asset management plan (NAMP) “to maximize government funds as it invests in infrastructure projects.”
Business World says:
A joint memorandum by three major Philippine departments – the Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) says that a two-year asset management plan covering 2022 to 2023 “will be used to spend the country’s limited resources on assets that need funding most.”
The NAMP will also provide information to guide government infrastructure investment decisions and address challenges like urbanization, impacts of population growth in infrastructure, funding and monitoring capacity of aging assets, especially those built in the 1960s, and managing disasters risks.
Although the initial NAMP only covers two years, the implementors will revisit the plan annually. According to the article, it may be expanded to three years “in the development of the succeeding NAMPs, to align with the medium-term planning processes.”
Factors in IAM’s successful implementation
The study “Strategies to Enhance Implementation of Infrastructure Asset Management in Developing Countries” by Beitemal et al., published in 2017, identified the variables and factors that will make Infrastructure Asset management’s implementation successful in developing countries.
They pointed to four key elements:
- political and legal (political intervening and legal enforcement which includes regulatory quality, and control of corruption that supports the needs of an organization in establishing asset management),
- economic development (the country’s economic and financial strength),
- social environment (the communities’ trust of an organization’s understanding of their needs), and
- technological environment (technology and communications network to support AM implementation).
These four elements of a particular country will dictate how favorable/supportive or unfavorable/unsupportive the country’s adoption of the IAM program.
Hence, improving the above factors can contribute to the smooth and successful infrastructure asset management adoption and implementation in a given country.
Sources:
Build Build Build projects. (2021, March). Republic of the Philippines Subic-Clark Alliance for Development. Retrieved from https://scad.gov.ph/build-build-build/
‘Build, Build, Build’ delivers, sets up infra for future. (2021 June 19). Republic of the Philippines, Philippines News Agency. Retrieved from https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1144279
Stein, A. (2018, May 23). How infrastructure investments alleviate poverty. The Borgen Project. Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/tag/infrastructure-in-developing-countries/
Infrastructure Asset Management. (n.d.). United Nation Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/financing/capacity-development/topics/infrastructure-asset-management#
Ibañez, J. (2022, February 2). National assessment management plan released. Business World. Retrieved from https://www.bworldonline.com/national-asset-management-plan-released/
Beitelmal, W., Javernick-Will, A., Molenaar, K., & Smadi, O. (2017, January) Strategies to Enhance Implementation of Infrastructure Asset Management in Developing Countries. ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318978363_Strategies_to_Enhance_Implementation_of_Infrastructure_Asset_Management_in_Developing_Countries
[…] Infrastructure asset management can help inform where the funding has the most significant impact, not just in the present but also in the future. […]