By Ayen Infante
01/26/2010 [ tribune.net.ph ]
Subic — Two major projects are expected to bring in $2 billion in additional investments inside Subic Bay Freeport and Special Economic Zone this year.
SBMA administrator Armand Arreza told reporters yesterday the two big-ticket projects that will come in this year are both tourism-related.
Arreza said the biggest would be the $1-billion theme park venture of MCastle of Korea which will be occupying an estimated land area of 600 hectares in Morong, Bataan.
Out of the total land area, 200 hectares are classified as protected. The company has an existing operation in China and Korea.
Apart from MCastle, another Korean firm Heung-A Property Group has expressed keen interest to develop a world-class leissure park composed of an island resort, gold course and a town center.
In partnership with Daewoo Securities, the firm has proposed to spend $1 billion for the planned Neocove project that would also include the development of a mixed use condominium, water park, church and office buildings.
Subic Neocove has already applied for the use of a total land area of 400 hectares.
With the entry of these new projects, SBMA is expected to raise the total cummulative investments of Subic to $8 billion from $5.9 billion in 2009.
Arreza said the amount may increase further with other big projects still in the pipeline.
One of these, is the P5 billion investments of Harbour Center which has expressed serious interest to operate a cold storate facility, warehouse for grains, wheat, and fertilizer, including an oil depot.
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