Gov't eyes February lease of Fujimi property

The government will try to lease out anew its posh real estate property in Fujimi, Japan by February after postponing this several times last year due to various hiccups, including the lack of bidders. The state hopes to award the contract to develop the Fujimi property this time given what it claims as strong interest from prospective bidders. "There are at least five interested groups," a government official said. Based on documents from the Department of Finance, interested groups vying for the lease and development of the property must submit prequalification requirements by January 19. The deadline for the submission of technical and financial bids is February 8. On the same day, a committee will study the bids and to approve a notice of award. The government and the winning bidder are expected to sign a service development contract by February 23. The Fujimi property includes the residence of the Philippine ambassador to Japan. Last year, the government announced a December 21 bidding date but was forced to scrap this amid appeals from interested parties for an extension to prepare their offers. The government also changed the mode of the privatization to a "negotiated development" under which the bids and awards committee may talk with only one party if other groups fail to meet the requirements. Under a regular bidding procedure, all interested parties must go through all the procedures. If nobody meet the requirements, the government will have to declare a bidding failure. The government hopes to bid out the 50-year lease and development contract for the property for P3 billion. Revenues from the lease of the Fujimi property are included in the revised P30-billion privatization target this year, which is higher than the previous goal of P12.5 billion. The revised program includes P13 billion from the sale of the government's Food Terminal, Inc. property in Taguig and P12 billion from the sale of its 60 percent stake in the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. Poor tax collections and unrealized gains from the sale of government assets led to a P6.4-billion budget deficit in November and a worse-than-projected gap of P272.5 billion for the 11-month period. Manila was originally looking at limiting this year’s fiscal shortfall to P233.4 billion, or 2.8 percent of economic output, from a projected deficit of at least P290 billion in 2009. Finance Secretary Margarito Teves is expected to announce the actual figures next month. — GMANews.TV