Wednesday, October 03, 2007 Davao power, land rates higher than Indonesia, Brazil By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE Board of Investment (BOI) in Mindanao said that the high rates in power and land are the reasons why some investors become "hesitant" in putting up a business in Davao City.
"The CJ Corporation, one of the biggest food companies in Korea, has a plan to invest P1.5 billion for a processing of sugar that will be extracted from coconut shells, in terms of raw materials, our coconut in Mindanao yielded higher sugar content than those of tyhe products in Indonesia and Brazil where they also proposed to establish a plant, but our power and land rate here is higher compared to these countries. This is why the Koreans try to look for some locations somewhere in Panabo City which offer cheaper price," Gil Dureza, BOI head in Mindanao, said.
Dureza said the land rate in Indonesia and Brazil was placed at US$40 per square meter, while in Davao City real estate rate was estimated at US$60 per square meters.
Dureza added that Koreans still displayed their intentions in putting up a plant in Davao Region. He said the CJ Corporation really plans to put up three factories, one in Indonesia, one in Brazil and one in Davao Region-Philippines.
"They are now on the process of pilot testing of the raw materials, the next stage will possibly be the buying of raw materials, and then construction of the plant, the target date was January next year," Dureza said.
It was learned that the processing plant would be a five-hectare plant.
