New Foreign Affairs Building, Is it Spacious and Functional Enough?

The new Foreign Affairs building, designed and constructed by International Environments with funds from the Taiwanese government, is being assessed for functionality since there was reportedly no consultation done to determine whether it would be able to house the number of staff, including those from Foreign Trade.

Isani Cayetano

“The new Foreign Affairs Building which was built by International Environments, perhaps under BIL, has there been an assessment at this point to determine value for money in terms of what was invested in the construction of that edifice?”

Julius Espat

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development

“We haven’t done a value for money [assessment].  I’ve received a request by the minister to give him a hand professionally to look at specifically that.  I have gotten some documents that the ministry itself is not happy with the building because it was not designed for their needs.  And so, right away you are looking at the functional aspect of a building and they are saying that consultation was never done properly, so it is nit designed in a way that’s comfortable for them; one, and now, they have more people coming in.  Right now it’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade so they have to find a way to make sure that everybody fits within that level.  They are at that level right now.  We will come in, as I said, to do a professional analysis and giver our recommendations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then the minister will take it from there.”