NEDA okayed NAIA-3 project - Canlas

The Investment Coordinating Council of the National Economic Development Authority (ICC-NEDA) has approved the terms of the contract to build the NAIA-International Passenger Terminal 3 (NAIA-IPT 3) being undertaken by Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (PIATCO).

During confirmation hearings of Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez at the Senate, NEDA Director General Dante Canlas pointed out that the contract was deemed by the ICC-NEDA to be "advantageous to government and to Filipinos."

"Both the build operate and transfer scheme for the NAIA IPT project and the amended restated concession agreement (ARCA) between PIATCO and the government were approved by the ICC-NEDA," Canlas said.

He revealed that the NEDA secretariat did not find anything wrong with the three supplements to the ARCA and that it is in fact was set to endorse the supplements but had deferred the action to give way to an inquiry conducted by the House committee on transportation and good governance.

The NEDA chief explained that the contract will provide a 34-percent economic rate of return, way above the 15 percent hurdle rate the agency uses to approve a project. The economic rate of return represents all benefits that will accrue to the national economy from a proposed project.

The construction of the airport facility at a cost of over P26 billion is being undertaken at no cost to government as the project is a build-operate-transfer (BOT) undertaking involving Filipino, German, Singaporean, and Japanese companies which comprise PIATCO, namely: Flughafen Frankfurt Main AG, People’s Aircargo & Warehousing Co., Inc., Philippine Airport and Ground Services Terminal Inc., Philippine Airport and Ground Services Inc., SB Airport Investments Inc., and Nissho Iwai Corp.

The approval paves the way for the completion of the airport project set for late this year. The new facility, which rests on a 180,000-square meter lot is expected to accommodate 13 million tourist arrivals a year from the present six million that the NAIA is capable of handling, and put in place a modern air facility in the country, comparable to the world’s best airports.