CLARK FREEPORT – The financial muscle of Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has gained more strength in 2013 heralding a banner year for the state-owned firm managing this freeport now unfolding as the emerging huge commercial-industrial complex in the Philippines.
CDC’s net profi t during the period swelled from P140 million to P327 million on the back of some P1.2- billion revenues. Both gross and net income figures were the highest recorded by CDC since it began operating commercially in 1993.
CDC capped 2013 with a record cash position of P1.48 billion, also the highest in the last 18 years, according to Mariza O. Mandocdoc, CDC’s vice president for business development and business enhancement group.
By the end of 2013, the number of operating business locators in this freeport totaled 679, employing a total of 72,616 workers. These locators exported some $3.831 billion worth of goods or $212 million, higher than the preceding year’s $3.619 billion export volume.
CDC records show that its revenues in 2012 reached P1.1 billion that yielded a net gain of P187 million. It closed that year with a cash position of P1.1 billion. Game-changer Mandocdoc, who holds a doctorate degree in engineering, traced CDC’s record performance in 2013 to a number of positive developments topped by the
“game-changing” management style and policy reforms introduced by Atty. Arthur Tugade, who took over CDC’s top post in the early part of the year in review.
Tugade ran CDC like a private enterprise committed to deliver the goods to its clients, the zone’s business locators, to help them prosper and stay on, and to its stakeholders led by the government, in terms of hefty returns on their investments and attracting more enterprises to set up shop in the freeport.
But what had the biggest impact on CDC’s performance was the set of policy reforms initiated by Tugade that, among others, instituted a culture of integrity and transparency in the dealings of the stateowned firm and its personnel with its current and prospective business locators and other clients.
“At present, we’re the only government-owned corporation that requires current and incoming business locators to sign a commitment not to offer any accommodations and any form of largesse to all CDC personnel, from management level to the rank-and-file,” Mandocdoc proudly declared in last Friday’s weekly media forum Balitaan at the Bale-Balita hosted by the Capampangan in Media Inc. (CAMI) in cooperation with the Social Security System (SSS) and the CDC.
A violation of this “contract” is enough ground for the imposition of certain sanctions such as the cancellation of lease agreements with CDC, she stressed. Policy reforms Part of the policy reforms called for CDC to extend to three years the term of Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CORTE) of business locators, as well as a reduction of business processing time for all applications and requests by 30-50 percent via automation.
CDC under Tugade adopted simplifi ed marketing forms that made it easy for the locators in dealing or doing business with CDC and “enhanced its account officer system” to deter “hanky-panky” deals that stem from over familiarization.
Locators are required to make clear commitments and timelines on the completion of their projects. The response to these reforms was positive, Mandodoc pointed out, referring to the surge of new locators, including the revival of inactive projects and the recovery of some idle leased lands, a “clear reflection of the improved business climate in the Clark Freeport.”
For this year, four new locators signed lease agreements with CDC and committed to invest some P648 million and generate 2,254 jobs when fully operational. Among these newcomers is Pishon Clark Phils., Inc., a Korean- owned electronic components maker such as speakers and earphones.
It committed a P72 million investment and will employ about 1,500 workers. The three others are Preferred and Proven Therapies, Inc. (PPTI) – formerly known as Jade Duty Free, Sambon P&E Phils. Corp. and Hubble Multisport, Inc. (HMI).
Similarly, CDC also succeeded in prompting eight inactive business locators to proceed with their projects.
These locators have committed to invest $177.77 million and generate 9,180 new jobs in two to three years.
The state-run firm also recovered in 2013 a total of 26.51 hectares earlier leased to locators that failed to pursue their projects.
