Philippine government puts out tender for $1.1bn prison building
Philippine contractor Megawide Construction said it was interested in taking part in a $1.1bn (£740m) government tender to build and maintain a prison north of the capital, Manila.
The tender, launched earlier this month, is part of the government’s efforts to fix a dilapidated prison system that is the fourth most overcrowded in the world, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS).
It is also one of several private-public partnership (PPP) projects launched by the government to improve infrastructure in south east Asia’s fifth largest economy.
Megawide, which has so far bagged a third of all PPP projects awarded so far, said investing in prisons was profitable, citing privately maintained jail facilities in Australia, Brazil, and the US.
“We are interested,” Louie Ferrer, Megawide vice president, told Reuters. “Australia is impressive in prison PPPs, and it looks like it is a good business opportunity when we talked to the operators there.”