North Harbor privatization still on track, says PPA
THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) will
formally restart the North Harbor privatization process with
the publication of a new set of invitations to prospective
bidders this week.
Assuming everything goes well, this will put the PPA within
its target of awarding the 25-year port operation and management
contract before the year ends.
A source sitting on the privatization technical working group
(TWG) said all issues are being looked at closely to prevent
further delays during the second bidding. These include the
number of qualified bidders, capitalization requirements and
cargo-handling experience of bidders.
During the last failed eligibility process, prospective bidders
Pier 8 Arrastre and Stevedoring Services, Prudential Customs
Brokerage and Magsaysay Maritime Corp. questioned the huge
capitalization requirement claiming this limited the bidding
to big companies. They said this was one of the reasons they
backed out of the bidding.
“We would like to address these issues first before
we resume privatization process. At the pace we are going,
I think we are still on target to have a new concessionaire
by end of the year,” the source said.
Late last month, PPA declared a failure of bidding in the
North Harbor privatization, saying the process will only push
through if there are at least two eligible bidders.
Only Harbour Centre Port Terminals, Inc. (HCPTI) together
with joint venture partner Metro Pacific Investment Corp.
(MPIC) was pre qualified to bid for the port contract.
Asian Terminals, Inc. (ATI) was declared ineligible after
submitting a special power of attorney instead of the required
waiver from legal suits.
In the interest of fairness, PPA general manager Oscar Sevilla
said the HCPTI-MPIC joint venture is assured a place in the
list of eligible bidders when the bidding process restarts.
To be auctioned off are the North Harbor’s container
terminal, general cargo terminal and passenger terminal complex,
which will be considered as one operational area.
The North Harbor’s Terminal 1 will service roll on-roll
off container and passenger vessels and Terminal 2, container
and passenger vessels. Terminal 3 will service conventional,
non-containerized, bulk or breakbulk vessels and passenger
vessels.
INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services,
Inc. (ICTSI) will spend P1.8 billion in the next five months
to further improve efficiencies in its terminals worldwide.
In a presentation, ICTSI said the bulk of the amount will
be used for its Syrian facility and the construction of a
port in Colombia toward the latter part of the year.
ICTSI has already spent P3.88 billion to acquire Yantai Container
Terminal in China, pay for advances for the initial operation
of Guayaquil Port in Ecuador and Tartous International Container
Terminal in Syria, and to construct the Port of Buenaventura
in Colombia.
Since the start of the year, ICTSI has been busy with its
follow-on offering and securing loans from various sources
to fund its aggressive foreign expansion.
It said its follow-on offering at the Philippine Stock Exchange
netted proceeds of P7.72 billion and new loans of P2.03 billion.
The company, however, spent P2.38 billion to prepay some of
its loans.
Last week, ICTSI reported a P535-million net income for the
second quarter, 12% higher than the previous year’s
P477 billion boosted by results from its flagship Manila International
Container Terminal (MICT) and other domestic operations.
ICTSI said the MICT saw an improvement in volumes by 10%.
Operations in Poland, Brazil, and Madagascar accounted for
two thirds of the company’s revenues, and the rest from
subsidiaries in Indonesia, China, and Davao in the Philippines.
The company handled a consolidated cargo volume of 642,274
TEUs, 40% more than the previous 458,370 TEUs. Domestic operations
accounted for 386,452 TEUs, or 60% of consolidated volumes.
Foreign container volume was at 255,822 TEUs, or a growth
of 64% over last year.
THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is fast tracking
accreditation of the remaining three value-added service provider
(VASP) applicants to meet the Asean Single Window interconnectivity
deadline by next year.
Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales, in an interview, said
preparations are in full swing to meet the 2008 schedule for
the interconnectivity of all Customs offices in the South
East Asian region. The BOC is in danger of missing the target
if the four VASP are not ready.
“We have to make sure that the VASPs are ready. The
technical aspect of their operations should be well tested
to handle all information passing through their systems,”
Morales said.
“The BOC will use the VASPs to provide our clients alternatives
in terms of cost and efficiency of service at no cost to the
government,” Morales added.
To date, only Intercommerce Network Services has received
a provisional VASP accreditation from the BoC. The three other
VASP applicants, Cargo Data Exchange Center, Inc., Crimson
Logic Philippines, and e-Konek Pilipinas, are still in the
user acceptance test — a requisite before the start
of the parallel run, the last phase of technical evaluation.
The BOC expects to finish the test by end of the month, and
sign all service level undertakings with the remaining applicants
by September.
With the implementation of the single window, Asean members
can equally compete with neighboring Asian giants such as
China, Japan, and South Korea in terms of trade facilitation.
The traditional method which requires traders to secure voluminous
documents and takes weeks before their shipments are released
will soon be a thing of the past.
Under the plan, all transactions will be done through computers
or mobile phones while person-to-person business deals will
be reduced, cutting down graft and corruption.
The single-window scheme is designed to speed up disposition
of shipments to improve operations in line with the trade
liberalization program as mandated by the World Trade Organization.
Earlier this year, Asean customs officials agreed to fully
implement the single-window scheme in disposing shipment through
paperless transactions from different customs zones of its
10-member countries.
