Tuesday, August 19, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
AboitizLand Inc., the property arm of the Aboitiz Group, will suspend more economic zone development projects and operations in Cebu as the Philippines has lost its attractiveness as preferred manufacturing site.
In a statement posted in the company’s website, Andoni Aboitiz, Aboitizland president, said the Philippines’ manufacturing sector has started to die as many companies now prefer to do business in China and Vietnam.
Aboitiz said, “Our manufacturing sector is [at a] ‘stand-still’. A lot of investments now are going to services.”
AboitizLand, operator and developer of the 63-hectare Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ-2), has no plans to develop another economic zone in the short to medium term.
Aboitiz said with the ecozone nearly fully occupied with 48 locators and 8,000 workers, the company plans to invest more in the services sector.
He said the company is currently building a five-story commercial corporate building for business process outsourcing companies.
AboitizLand is investing P160 million for the construction of the iMEZ, which is scheduled to be finished by March next year with a total leasable area of 5,000 square meters.
Aboitiz said the company has started talking with prospective locators, all of them foreign contact center companies.
As iMez is within the Pueblo Verde commercial block, Aboitiz said its ground floor would be leased to retail shops and dining outlets to complement the retail establishments in the area.
Aboitizland also co-owns with Tsuneishi Holdings Inc. the Cebu Industrial Park Developers Inc., developer and operator of the West Cebu Industrial Park in Balamban town in western Cebu.
Aboitiz said has not entertained plans to develop other real-estate facilities such as a retirement village despite its huge potential. He said the weak infrastructure support for developing such project is not yet in place in Cebu.
Instead, the company is putting its P2.3-billion allocation for real-estate projects in the development of residential and commercial facilities in Cebu. -- Chino S. Leyco
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