By Othel V. Campos | Mar. 04, 2014 at 12:01am [
manilastandardtoday.com ]
First Philippine Industrial Park Inc., an economic zone
developer led by the Lopez Group, is investing P1 billion to develop an
additional 92 hectares as a part of the expansion of its 350-hectare industrial
park in Santo Tomas, Batangas.
“We’re almost fully
occupied now with barely a hectare left in the old industrial park. This
expansion will create new sites for new locators and will provide more room for
expanding companies,” FPIP president Edwin Coseteng told reporters in a news
briefing in Makati City.
FPIP is a 70-30 joint venture between First Philippine
Holdings Corp. of the Lopez Group and Sumitomo Corp. of Japan.
President Benigno Aquino III on Feb. 14 issued Presidential
Proclamation No. 722 designating First Philippine Industrial Park’s expansion
project as a special economic zone.
Once operational, the new development is expected to add
20,000 employees to the current workforce of 40,000 inside the industrial park.
FPIP said once the expansion project was completed, the
industrial park would be almost as big as the 450-hectare Lima Technological
Center.
“Without the expansion, FPIP will be hard-pressed to meet
the growing foreign investor demand for more space. With the expansion, FPIP’s
area will increase from 350 to 442 hectares,” Coseteng said.
“This is the only way for us to remain relevant as we strive
to meaningfully contribute to the competitiveness of our business partners in
the global market,” Coseteng added.
FPIP recently finalized the entry of Zama Philippines Inc.,
a wholly-owned unit of German power tools company STIHL Ag.
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