[ Manila Bulletin Online ] April 15, 2008
By BERNIE CAHILES–MAGKILAT
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has forged an agreement with UK-based Stratospheric Airship Technologies (SAT) which has committed to invest $ 500 million for aircraft manufacturing by taking over the facilities of logistics giant FedEx, which is leaving Subic Bay freeport to transfer its regional logistics hub to China.
SAT legal counsel Atty. Inky Reyes said that SAT UK Ltd. managing director Bryn Lloyd Williams and SBMA administrator Armand C. Arreza signed the memorandum of agreement last Friday.
According to Reyes, SAT is not going to replace the Asia Pacific hub operations of FedEx but rather transform the facility into an aircraft manufacturing hub. The airships are designed to become communication platforms.
"It is an entirely different operations," Reyes said.
Its facilities will be located in a 20-hectare area adjacent to the FedEx facilities, Reyes said.
"It will not operate as a logistics facility but if there is a company interested to operate like the operations of FedEx we will make adjustments so everybody can be accommodated," Reyes said. The lease contract of FedEx with SBMA will expire in December this year.
This will be SAT’s first entry into the country although but it has operations in Spain, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
In a statement, FedEx confirmed that some employees who hold positions that do not support the operations of the Asia Pacific Hub in Subic Bay have been offered an option to relocate to Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, or China on March 26, 2008.
"We are taking immediate steps to keep as many employees in the FedEx family as possible," the statement said.
During the transition and after the relocation of employees, FedEx operations in the Philippines will operate as normal. FedEx remains committed to providing the best possible services to its customers in the Philippines.
"We are taking immediate steps to keep as many employees in the FedEx family as possible," the statement added.
Affected employees who are not successful applying for other comparable jobs within FedEx or who do not have the opportunity to relocate will be provided a severance payment which is in excess of that required by the labor law in the Philippines.
Since the time FedEx has informed the government of its decision to relocate to Guangzhou, China, the SBMA also started looking for possible replacements.
UPS, another US-based cargo handler worldwide, was reportedly being eyed to replace FedEx but so far has stayed in Clark as its regional base.
SBMA contributes about P180 million a year for SBMA in terms of rentals.
FedEx aside from landing fees.
Its departure means lost of job losses and adversely affect the companies which support FedEx operation in Subic .
FedEx will make its facility in Guangzhou , China as its Asia Pacific hub, which has 80,000 square meters of floor space seated in the 63,000 hectares of land, its biggest facility outside the mainland USA .
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