CLARK FREEPORT – Leading businessmen, lawmakers and local government officials in Central Luzon will initiate beginning January next year a series of calibrated actions to prod the national leadership to adopt a policy direction and concrete actions that would sustain the economic development of the region, particularly this freeport, in the years ahead.
First off in this agenda is a “summit” of some 200 of these corporate bosses, congressmen and local officials on January 16 at the Widus Hotel and Convention Center here, one of about 900 foreign-owned enterprises operating now in this former US military facility converted into a business haven,
Rep. Yeng Guiao (1st District-Pampanga) said.
The neophyte Pampanga solon said he will promptly follow up with a privilege speech in the Lower House on what would transpire in the summit in pursuit of the economic vision of President Aquino for the region and for the rest of the country.
Guiao made the pronouncements during the Balitaan forum hosted by the Capampangan In Media, Inc. (CAMI) and sponsored by the Social Security System (SSS) and the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) at the Bale Balita
here last Friday.
With these twin and succeeding actions, the summit aims to generate a common consensus on the feasible steps to take to drum up a national awareness on and support for the Aquino Administrations program to further boost the economic growth of Central Luzon provinces in and around this freeport, Guiao said.
“In the case of Clark, what we hope to achieve is to encourage the President to declare a national policy on the concrete role the zone should play in the country’s economic development,” he said. That declaration should, he added, spur a surge of investments in the infrastructure of the freeport as in the immediate completion, for instance, of a project to build a bigger and modern terminal facility at the Clark International Airport (CIA).
In particular, the stakeholders want the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to “approve this project ASAP to trigger the release of a P7.2 billion fund now lodged as un-programmed item embedded in the Department of Budget and Management (DBM),” Guiao explained.
“We also hope to encourage the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) to hasten the completion of the North Railway project, as well as extend its reach from Calamba, Laguna to this freeport instead of the original target destination of only up to Malolos, Bulacan by 2020,” Guiao stressed.
He added that the entire country will also benefit in terms of shared progress, job generation, technology transfer and increased foreign exchange income. Meanwhile, even at its current limited operation and stage of development, this freeport, which sprawls on some 34,500 hectares including the aviation complex and the subzone in Sacobia, has managed to attract as of end-April this year some 650 locators that employ more
than 71,000 workers.
Data show that the imports of locators from January to April were valued at $718,105,903 and their exports at $1,127,504,934. The top three exporters are Nannox Philippines ($442,855,523), Phoenix Semiconductor Philippines ($405,684.167), and Yokohama Tires Philippines, Inc. ($77,634,151).
CDC president and CEO Arthur Tugade had earlier reported that eight new locators have signed up to do business in the zone, committing fresh investments of $31.42 million and generating 8,928 new job opportunities.
As of last July, seven projects were also revived. These involved $175.14 million in fresh capital infl ow and some 5,172 in new job opportunities. The Clark International Airport has also become a “second gateway”
for a growing number of local and international airlines, like Cebu Pacifi c, Tiger Airways, Asiana Airlines and lately Qatar Airways and Emirates Airlines.
Executives of both Qatar Airways and Emirates Airlines had said they were attracted to Clark because it is a lucrative market for inbound/ outbound travelers as 75% of the some 9,452,984 Filipinos fielded abroad as overseas workers come from Luzon, particularly its central and northern portion.
Luzon is also a contiguous area on top of having a highly-developed infrastructure system, characteristics that facilitate the movement of people.
