Vol. XXI, No. 241 [ BusinessWorld Onine ]
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
EDIFICATION PROPERTIES Holdings, Inc. (EPHI) has partnered with Cathay Land, Inc. in building a college campus at the South Forbes Golf City in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
EPHI will invest about P250 million over the life of the project, with an initial P30-P50 million investment for the initial phase.
Construction of the campus will start in the third quarter, and the first phase is expected to be completed next year.
"The continuous growth of these industries will rely on the location of more institutions of higher learning to provide the resources of a knowledge-based economy to these surrounding locator companies," said Eric Salido of EPHI.
The Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay corridor is the center of light manufacturing industries and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.
The educational facility, to be called South Forbes City Colleges, Inc., will be equipped with fiber optic connectivity to ensure that students will be educated and trained under international standards.
"South Forbes City Colleges is a welcome addition to our education cluster, in that it will beef up synergy with our other four clusters," said Cathay Land President Jeffrey Ng.
South Forbes has dedicated about 3.1 hectares for the campus, which is adjacent to the real estate developer’s residential cluster.
The campus community will be patterned after Ivy League campuses like Stanford University in Palo Alto, University of Texas in Austin, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, where technology-based industries and educational institutions work hand in hand.
"In addition to global education, these future students will be studying and living in a classic campus-type environment conducive to learning and growing — pedestrian-oriented and surrounded by nature," Mr. Ng said.
Mr. Salido noted that knowledge workers must continue to have upgraded facilities and skill sets "that allow a seamless transition between academic pursuits and those needed for practical industrial requirements."
Though still in the planning stages, South Forbes City Colleges intends to offer courses in hotel and restaurant management, information technology, business management, nursing and other medical-related courses, vocational courses, and foreign languages.
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