Firm to set up manufacturing plant

THE Davao City Investment and Promotion Center (DCIPC) said a Philippine-based company is setting up a manufacturing plant in the city this year.

DCIPC chief Jason Magnaye, speaking at the Club 888 Forum at the Marco Polo Hotel Davao on Wednesday, said he is extending non-fiscal incentives to Monde Nissin like securing permits for the construction of its manufacturing plant.

Magnaye said the construction of the company's plant will be completed in the last quarter of this year, giving more than a hundred jobs to the labor force of Davao.

The DCIPC chief, meanwhile, said the Business Bureau in Davao City recorded a total of P187 billion in business capitalization for 2011, up by 2.13 percent compared to P183 billion for 2010.

Magnaye said the city is also hoping to become one of the most desired destinations for meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (Mice) conventions with two firms opening convention centers in the city next year.

Magnaye said SM Prime Holdings already announced that it will open its SMX convention center in February next year while the Dominic and Sons Inc. will open its convention center with 4,000 seats in 2013.

"We're expecting around 50 buyers who will book for big events. Forty are foreigners and ten locals," Magnaye said, adding this will help the local accommodations to increase the occupancy rate.

"Davao City organizing committee talked to hotels to come up with better rates and to organize with luncheon so that they can showcase their foods," Magnaye said.

He said the occupancy rate of local accommodations as of June this year is pegged at 47. 97 percent, but the data were taken only from 52 establishments which submitted monthly reports out of 125 hotels and inns in the city. Davao has a total of 5,500 rooms.

"Without the monthly report, we can't give them the whole picture," Magnaye said.

As of April, DCIPC recorded a total of 160, 592 tourist arrivals. Of the total, 147,486 were domestic and 13,106 were foreign.

Magnaye said that as of June, the Department of Tourism recorded a total of 981 registered tourism establishments, of which 981 were renewal and 105 were new establishments.

Last year, the total number of registered establishments was placed at 1,186.

"We're confident to end the year with higher figure," Magnaye said.