Friday, July 13, 2007 Bank launches industrial park for SMEs in Cebu
A bank has established the country’s first industrial park for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The SME industrial park, located in Cantao-an, Naga, is considered a “breakthrough project,” said Jesus Tambunting, Planters Development Bank (Plantersbank) chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).
“The SME Industrial Park will enable Cebu’s SMEs to utilize property investment to further boost business productivity,” he said in a statement.
The park will also enable SMEs to ensure sufficient transactions and meet the growing demands of both local and foreign markets while enjoying special economic zone incentives previously extended only to large corporations,” he said.
He said SME that will locate in the park will enjoy income tax holidays, exemption from taxes and duties on importation of capital equipment, tax credits for locally sourced capital equipment and exemption from export tax and import fees.
During the inauguration of the park last Wednesday, Tambunting said the project will be the “center of world-class SMES and showcase the country’s excellent export products.”
Philipine Economic Zone Authoriy (Peza) Director General Lilia de Lima said that with tax and duty holidays, Filipino SMEs would have a good chance to penetrate the export market since they are free from any hassles and extra charges attached to raw material or capital equipment importation and exportation duties.
She said Peza would also assign people to process and conduct transactions with SMEs in the park “24 by 7, even if it’s an urgent shipment in the middle of the night.”
Tambunting said Planters-bank established the SME Industrial Park “because we saw the tremendous opportunities it will open up for Filipino SMEs in Cebu, which is home to a large number of Filipino exporters.”
He said Cebu is considered as one of the “country’s fastest growing and most economically active province” and Plantersbank is “very optimistic about prospects in the Visayas.”
Tambunting said Cebu’s growth may be attributed to its “dynamic political leadership and good governance.”
“The competitiveness in the global market place of products and brands ‘made in Cebu’ has no doubt been established,” he said.
Even before the inauguration, Plantersbank said seven SMEs have signed up to locate in the industrial park.
Despite the good response, Tambunting said the government can enhance the potentials of the industrial park by putting up additional infrastructure in the area such as port facilities. (TEP)
