JAPAN International Cooperation Agency (Jica) heads presented Tuesday to government agencies and infrastructure stakeholders the results of their study on High Standard Highway (HSH) Network Development Plan.
With the presence of officials from Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), Jica's team leader Mitsuo Kiuchi disclosed the proposed HSH Network Development Plan for Metro Davao.
Kiuchi said Jica has made studies since April 2009 on the transport infrastructure development in three urban areas in the country: Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao.
On September 2009, Jica started its formulation of a master plan for HSH.
On Wednesday, they presented a draft of their HSH master plan for Metro Davao, and expect to finalize the same by June, Kiuchi said in a meeting held at Grand Men Seng Hotel.
The said development plan underlines proposed projects of quality transport network in Metro Davao emphasizing on the Tagum-Davao-General Santos corridor targeted for implementation by 2020 or by 2030.
DPWH feasibility study project director Faustino Sta. Maria Jr. said Jica, as an international development agency, might take part in financing the projects they presented.
"These are all still proposals. Possibly they will finance these, only possibly. We cannot conclude now what will be their plans because today's meeting is only the first step. But usually when they do development projects they do these first, make a study then present to us," Sta. Maria said in an interview.
DPWH-Davao Assistant Regional Director Reynaldo Tamayo said in his assessment the country cannot finance the proposed projects.
"In most cases, these will be done through loans outside the country. The country cannot spend on it alone if we really look at it to the level of quality they are proposing," Tamayo said.
Tamayo cited that the proposed budget for infrastructure for 2010 was supposedly worth P8.9 billion but the government only approved a budget of P3.8 billion.
In his presentation, he defined roads in the country are classified into national arterial and secondary roads.
"The region has a total national road network including bridges of 1,476.63 kilometers; 64.46 percent of these roads are already paved as of June 2009 while the remaining 35.54 percent still needs to be paved," Tamayo said.
Kiuchi said he hopes DPWH and MinDA "will incorporate in (their) planning the results of thier studies."
"I hope you will implement some of the projects we proposed in our study, include the results to the next medium development plans. As we have observed the Philippine government only allots 1 percent of your GDP (gross domestic product) to your infrastructure projects when ideally it should be 4 to 5 percent of the GDP. I hope your administration will increase your budget," Kiuchi said.
Jica deputy team leader for the project Dr. Shingo Gose said HSH is needed for the promotion of decentralization through infrastructure development and establishment of regional pole cities in order to decongest traffic.
"Traffic congestion in the road transport sector has been a perennial problem directly affecting the socio-economic activities in the country. The low quality and less extensiveness of existing infrastructure is one of the major factors deteriorating the Philippine Global Competitiveness. Poorly developed transport network has been increasing the gap between regions and economic centers, lowering productivity and increasing costs to markets," Gose said.
Gose also revealed the Philippine Global Competitiveness Index' current position based on the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum from 2001 to 2009.
"In 2001, your rank was around 55. Since then your country has steadily been going down. In 2006 to 2008, you placed around 70. In 2009, you plunged to around 90 in terms of global competitive index. As for the competitiveness of your infrastructure, in 2009, you are at around 100, which is very low," Gose said.
Gose also detailed how Jica defines HSH, which is different to how the country defines their land infrastructures.
HSH 1, aerial high standard highway, is classified to two; Type 1 Inter-Urban and Type 2 Intra-Urban. Type 1 is an expressway which traverses two or more regions and forms the network of the primary transport backbone. Type 2 is an expressway that traverses within a major urban center and its surrounding areas and forms the urban transport backbone.
HSH 2, regional high standard highway, is an arterial road of which functions are similar to HSH 1. This is a high quality of traffic service to be achieved by improvement of an existing road or a new road of which facility standard can be similar to existing one. This type will be converted to HSH 1 when enough traffic is expected, Gose said. (JCZ)