The Philippines Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is currently proposing about P403 billion in infrastructure projects in 2014 to boost the country’s competitiveness, spur investments, create jobs and improve the country’s economy.
According to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, they are also proposing P607 billion for infrastructure spending in 2015 and P834 billion in 2016.
The Philippine budget increase would result in a five percent infrastructure spending to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio and increase revenue effort to 17.1 percent by the year 2016.
Records shows, that the Philippines is currently lagging behind its neighbors in terms of infrastructure funding. The funding would not just cover the projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) but also the infrastructure subsidy for government-owned and controlled corporations and infrastructure transfer for local government units.
The DBM had reported that infrastructure spending rose by 35.6 percent or P104.6 billion from January to May this year. The amount was equivalent to 2.6 percent of the estimated GDP for the period.
