By Bebot Sison (The Philippine Star) Updated September 21, 2009 12:00 AM
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines — Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) will be seeking new investments in China to further diversify the industry base in this free port in its efforts to mitigate the effects of the global economic slowdown.
Administrator/CEO Armand Arreza said SBMA officials will promote Subic as an ideal investment site in their visit to the city of Suzhou in China next week, with the hope of bagging more investments after fresh capital infusions from countries like South Korea and Taiwan declined lately.
According to the SBMA, investments by Chinese firms in Subic stood at only $12.7 million this year, the sixth biggest in terms of nationality here.
However, while Korean firms still had the biggest investment commitments here at $2.76 billion, Arreza said Korea’s investment momentum in the manufacturing sector that was started by shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. in 2006 had significantly waned.
“So we’re looking for more diversified investments to cushion the effects of any economic downturn on the Freeport’s revenue and employment generation efforts,” Arreza said.
Arreza explained that Suzhou, which is located just outside the financial capital of Shanghai, have recently diversified from industrial manufacturing to information technology and commercial development.
Therefore, Suzhou-based firms could be attractive to Subic as the latter prepares for more investments in property development, tourism, logistics, and energy.
As for investments from Korea, Taiwan, and even the Middle East, the SBMA is now adopting a “wait-and-see” attitude, said Arreza.
In the same interview, Arreza told The STAR that Subic’s financial performance this year had remained positive, despite the delay in some scheduled investments here due to the global economic downturn.
“Investments would most likely be flat by the end of this year, but Subic’s revenue performance remains up,” Arreza said, pointing out that a lot of projects approved by the SBMA fro two years ago are now being finally realized.