CLARK FREEPORT – Things look grand in this freeport, with reports that Ingasco Inc. is investing in a project worth P1.2 billion and a firm called Pashion pumping in $380 million, among the 10 new projects eyed here for this year.
In an interview, Clark Development Corp. (CDC) President-CEO Arthur Tugade also said that top Japanese clothing firm Uniqlo is also establishing a manufacturing plant and plans to manufacture one million pieces per month of their products for the world market.
Tugade said Pashion is a firm also engaged in clothing. Ingasco, on the other hand, is the leading manufacturer and distributor of liquid and cylinder air products in the Philippines.
This, as CDC pursues investors whose leased lands here have remained idle for years. Tugade said that an area covering 80 to 100 hectares leased to a firm identified with former Angeles City Councilor Irineo “Bong” Alvaro will soon host a hotel and water park.
Earlier in a meeting with the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC), Tugade revealed that almost all 2,200 hectares of this freeport have already been leased out to a total of 608 investors, leaving his state-firm with only 139 hectares of scattered areas for potential investments.
With its income largely derived from land lease payments, the CDC could head to “financial plateau” that could be surpassed by its expenditures, he admitted.
“Actually we have a total of 145 hectares still uncommitted, but six hectares of this area is devoted to parking areas and roads so we are left with 139 hectares”, he noted.
Tugade, who assumed his CDC post only last December, also noted that of the 608 investors in this freeport, only 182 have direct contracts with the CDC. The others are sub-lessees of these direct investors.
He cited “judicious management” of the state firm’s resources, as well as scouting for more adjacent areas to be included in the scope of the freeport, as among these measures to boost the financial well-being of the CDC.
Developments in this freeport complement forecast for the Philippine economy which is seen to expand within the 6.5 to 7 percent range this year and the next according to Moody’s Analytics report last week.
“We expect GDP growth to remain in the 6.5% to 7% range in 2013 and 2014, making the Philippines one of the world’s fastest-growing economies,” Glenn Levine, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, said in Philippines Outlook: Asia’s Rising Star.
Moody’s Analytics’ 2013 economic growth projection is near the high-end of the Philippine government’s target of a 6 to 7 percent expansion this year. But the firm’s 2014 forecast represents the lower half of the government’s 6.6 to 7.5 percent target next year.
