Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Thursday said nearly 200 top priority infrastructure projects will be supported by the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).
“These projects need funding and we will focus on them first. Some of them are already ready for implementation. That will be the concentration of the Maharlika Investment Fund,” Diokno said in an interview with ABS-CBN.
Diokno said the MIF was “more designed for the domestic economy rather than investing abroad.”
Diokno added that the plan of Maharlika Investment Corp. president Rafael Consing of doubling the MIF’s capital to P250 billion was “very doable.”
“That could easily be doubled by enticing some investment, foreign and domestic, to beef up the size of the fund,” he said.
Earlier, Diokno expressed confidence that the MIC, designed which will supervise the MIF, would be operational before the year ends despite a number of vacancies in the management team.
“The advisory body has submitted a list (of nominees) that include two regular directors and three independent directors… I am not aware of new appointees,” Diokno said in a briefing with the Malacanang Press Corps.
The advisory body is composed of the heads of the Department of Budget and Management, the National Economic and Development Authority and the Bureau of the Treasury.
Consing said in a briefing Nov. 15 that he hoped to fill up certain very important roles within the MIC management team over the next 30 to 60 days.
MIC, is a nine-member board of directors consisting of the Secretary of Finance as the chairperson in an ex-officio capacity, president and CEO of MIC; the president and CEO of the Land Bank of the Philippines, the president and CEO of the Development Bank of the Philippines , two regular directors appointed by the President for a term of three years, and three independent directors from the private sector, also appointed by the President for a term of one year.
Consing said the MIF would look at investment opportunities in the areas of tourism infrastructure, agro-urbanism, energy and information and communications technology.
He also said the MIC’s approach would be to look at the NEDA Board-approved projects, which include 197 flagship infrastructure projects. Of this number, 122 are in physical connectivity that include airports, bridges, roads, and marine connectivity. Thirty-eight (38) of these fall under the Public-Private Partnership scheme.
The MIC has an initial capitalization of P125 billion. Both the LandBank and the DBP have already transferred their contributions as the founding government financial institutions of P50 billion and P25 billion, respectively, to the account of the Bureau of the Treasury.
The LandBank deposited its share on Sept. 14, while DBP remitted on Sept. 15.
The remaining P50 billion of MIC’s initial capitalization will be sourced from the national government. One of the sources is the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas dividend remittance.
The BSP has already remitted P31.859 billion for 2023.