posted August 03, 2016 at 11:59 pm by Othel
V. Campos [thestandard.com.ph]
Subic Bay Freeport Zone attracted P100
billion worth of new investments in the first seven months, including a
P60-billion Australian joint venture, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority said
Wednesday.
SBMA said the figure represented one of
the biggest project approvals in a seven-month period since the Freeport was
established in 1992. SBMA said the
Freeport attracted only P42 billion worth of new investment projects over the
past four years.
SBMA chairman Roberto Garcia said the
biggest project approved by the agency this year was the P60-billion joint
venture between an Australian company and Asian Institute of Aviation, an
existing locator in the Freeport.
“They would transport agricultural
products from Australia, mostly meat and seafood, repack them here, and then
fly or ship them out to customers worldwide,” he said.
Photo of www.subicbaynews.net
Garcia said the joint venture partners
would put up an intermodal cargo terminal, use both airport and seaport and
expect to deliver 60 containers per month for the Subic seaport.
“So that is going to be a big help.
Their investment is going to be P60 billion for this project alone, and it will
generate 800 jobs, not counting those for the construction work,” he said.
The project would also involve building
new hangars, as the investors would bring in seven jets for their operations
and offer maintenance and repair operations for jets, mostly from Hong Kong.
Garcia said the project, which would
occupy the northeast corner of Subic airport, would not affect the proposed use
by the Philippine Air Force of the southwest portion of the airport under the
Expanded Defense Cooperation Agreement with the US.
The SBMA board also approved an
industrial estate project worth P34 billion in a 400-hectare area in the Redondo
Peninsula, near the site of Hanjin shipyard.
The proposed industrial estate project
will include the development of a 200-megawatt solar plant and the construction
of warehouses and logistics facilities and establishment of factories. This is expected to generate 53,000 jobs.
Garcia said Korean shipbuilder Hanjin
Heavy Industries received the green light from SBMA to put up a 12-megawatt
solar power plant in Redondo.
Another big project approved by the SBMA
board was the ship-to-ship transfer operation for liquefied natural gas, which
would be worth P5 billion, he said.
“Things are looking good,” Garcia
said. He said aside from big-ticket
investments, SBMA also approved “a lot of smaller projects.”
“So as far as I’m concerned, we have a
lot of activity in the pipeline for the next three to five years,” Garcia said.
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