Abalos was designated by Malacañang as the official representative of the country for the three-day Infrastructure Asia 2002 forum in Hong Kong.
In an interview, Abalos said that he has already come up with a line-up of projects to be presented during the forum for all of the interested investors. Among the projects are the Intermodal Terminal project, mass rail transit and the continuation of the Skyway. The Intermodal is one of the priority projects identified in the Metro Manila Urban Transport Integration Study conducted by the Japan International Cooperative Agency. Under the project, central terminals will be developed at the entry points of Metro Manila in the north and south for public utility buses plying the provincial routes.
The objective of the project is to reduce the volume of traffic along the major thoroughfares by preventing the entry of provincial buses with no existing terminals in Metro Manila. This way, commuters will have to get off at the Intermodal terminals and take a separate ride into the Metro area. — Marvin Sy