Vol. XXI, No. 182 [ Business World Online ]
Thursday, April 17, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
THE GOVERNMENT hopes to attract more foreign investments as it speeds up the approval process for joint venture agreements between agencies and private companies through guidelines approved on April 8.
The joint venture guidelines, due for release today, also contain a clause mandating an agency that receives an unsolicited project proposal from a private company to act on it within 10 working days.
"The guidelines will, in effect, expedite [projects] through clear-cut joint-venture processes," Government Corporate Counsel Alberto Agra said in an interview yesterday.
His office, which received the rules from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), is expected to publish these today.
In a letter to the government corporate lawyer, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Augusto B. Santos said the processing of joint venture proposals would be shortened, "taking into consideration the instructions of the President to streamline procedures and processes to attract more private sector investors."
Last month, the state-run Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) was forced to reject an unsolicited proposal from Shanghai-based Shimao Property Holdings Ltd. to develop an eight-hectare property in Taguig City in the absence of joint venture rules.
The rules would have included a Swiss-challenge process for unsolicited proposals. A Swiss challenge is a form of public procurement that requires an agency that has received an unsolicited bid for a public project to publish the bid and invite third parties to match or exceed it.
The blueprint to be released today gives government agencies full authority to enter into joint venture deals without prior approval from the NEDA’s investment coordination committee.
But agencies must get a clearance from either the Finance or Budget department for projects that require government guarantees or subsidies.
A NEDA representative will sit on the selection committee of the government agency to assess the private sector offer. Public officials will convene on April 30 to discuss the guidelines, Mr. Agra said. — IPP
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