First Balfour President and Chief Operating Officer Anthony L. Fernandez (ALF) was among the industry leaders present during the 2nd CEO Conversations organized by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce (La Camara) and Acciona. He was joined by Aboitiz InfraCapital President and CEO Cosette Canilao, DMCI President and CEO Jorge Consunji, and BDO Capital and Investment President Eduardo Francisco in the roundtable discussion held at the Makati Diamond Residences last 26 October 2022.
The roundtable session, which gathered the country’s top minds in the infrastructure space, began with an exchange of insights on a bill recently filed at the Senate which seeks to create a 30-year planning horizon for infrastructure. The panelists all agreed that having such will provide future governments a template which will allow them to plan better given that larger infrastructure projects normally go through different administrations. From a banking perspective, it was also highlighted during the session that funding is available and ready to be deployed for viable projects.
Prior to the roundtable discussion, KPMG Head of Deal Advisory Mike Guarin also discussed the Philippine infrastructure situation which he said presents a lot of excellent opportunities for infrastructure players. Citing the country’s infrastructure ranking of 96th out of the 141 countries in the 2019 Global Competitiveness Index, he shared that the government has to work together with the private sector to move forward and keep up with its neighbors in the ASEAN region.
The CEO conversations is the third and last in the Infrastructure Series of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce for 2022. To watch the recording of the session, you may view the video here.
