Thursday, July 10, 2008 Editorial: Bright and challenging
THE Clark Freeport Zone continues to amazingly blaze the economic horizon as more and bigger investment packages are brought in one after another, providing a huge, bright spot for all stakeholders in Pampanga and Central Luzon, and even beyond.
The awarding of a multibillion-peso contract for the lease and development of the Mimosa Leisure Estate last Tuesday is one such investment package that promises more business opportunities, more jobs and other economic benefits for thousands.
In addition to the P1.5 billion going-concern value (GCV) that the government, through the state-owned Clark Development Corporation (CDC), will earn from the deal, there is the annual guaranteed lease payment to start off at P160 million over the 50-year lifespan of the contract that the awarded firm, Waterfront Philippines, Incorporated, will pay. There is also the P1-billion additional investment that the company will pour into the estate in five years.
This deal should further improve the stature of Clark as a world-class tourist destination, a plus factor to the main vision of developing the former American military base into a highly competitive logistics and service hub in Asia and the Pacific.
A couple of weeks ago, CDC also entered into another lucrative contract with an existing investor in Clark, Berthaphil, Inc., for the development of a suppliers’ park for another huge investor in the Freeport Zone, Texas Instrument (TI).
The contract was worth US$1 billion for CDC, and more in terms of other potential investments and income that will be generated from the projects, not to mention the thousands of new jobs that will be created. TI had earlier pledged US$1 billion in investment as it relocated its manufacturing plant in the Freeport Zone.
It is conceivable that other equally big, if not bigger, investment plans may be in the offing for Clark. The emerging trend appears to be in this direction, a vibrant outlook that can have far-reaching effects not only on the economy but on other important areas such as more funds for local government units (LGUs), poverty alleviation, social services, etc.
Certainly, all these encouraging upshots in Clark should be credited to the sustained and vigorous approach to transform Clark into a modern and vast economic engine by President Arroyo, obviously as part of her administration’s economic agenda and her lasting legacy to her kabalen, in particular, and the nation, in general.
The results-oriented and professional management and leadership of CDC president and chief executive officer Levy Laus has, no doubt, also played a significant factor in this bright and optimistic scenario. That he has decided to relinquish the job he has clearly done comparably well is, perhaps, an expression of a solid confidence that the future for Clark hereon in can only be brighter.
