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Cebu officials fast-track $ 18-B seaport project

[ Manila Bulletin Online ] June 14, 2008
By MALOU M. MOZO


CEBU CITY — The Cebu Ports Authority (CPA) announced the fast-track implementation of the project to construct the $ 18-billion international seaport in Cebu and it is presently looking for increased capitalization.

CPA general manager Angelo Verdan said the government agency is now holding talks with two international shipping blue lines who have expressed interest not only to fill in the loan requirements for the new Cebu port but to even speed up its completion.

He also said a Japanese firm and the Dubai Ports had earlier signified their intentions to Cebu Provincial Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia under a build-operate-transfer scheme.

"Cebu definitely needs a new port. Although not urgently, but it has to be built. The time to build is when it’s not yet needed," he told news reporters Wednesday.

He said CPA together with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has already completed the preliminary studies for the proposed Cebu port, however actual construction has been slated in 2010.

The new Cebu port will sprawl across a 120-hectare reclaimed property in Tayud, Consolacion, Cebu.

Construction will be done in two phases. Phase one will include the reclamation development of the first 80-ha.

Verdan said, though it may take five to eight years for the international port to be finished and operational, he said this buys CPA more time to study other possible developments in the existing Cebu International Port (CIP).

Among the considerations raised was utilizing the area as a feasible cite for commercial or residential buildings either for hotels or condominiums, like the harbors in Hong Kong and Singapore.

"The CIP is still not yet saturated. We have the time," he said, adding that once the new Cebu port opens, it will catapult Cebu to becoming "an international shipping trading center."

Verdan deems the new Cebu port a "necessary investment" for Cebu if it wants to be competitive in the global shipping industry because the mean low level Water average of the existing docking area at the CIP is only 8.5 meters and this below international standards of at least 10 meters.
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