Malaysians to put up P100-M cargo forwarding service in Gen San

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – A P100-million state-of-the-art cargo forwarding service will be established here to cater to the needs of importers and exporters in the Socsksargen (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City) growth area.

In a meeting recently at city hall with his department heads, City Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr. disclosed that a group of Malaysian investors led Capt. Malyx Pengiran Mahran of the Bentulu port of Sarawak will be putting up a multi-million cargo forwarding service.

"The Malaysians will put up this project in the city in their bid to lower the shipping and handling costs of their products from Sarawak to General Santos City and vice-versa," the mayor said.

This group, Acharon said, exports some 20,000 tons of urea fertilizer and some 100,000 tons of soya meal to the country yearly, 60 and 20 percent, respectively of which are shipped in Mindanao.

With the establishment of the cargo forwarding service here, Acharon expressed optimism the trading activities between Malaysia and Philippines would improve.

"This will be advantageous to both importers and exporters because the cargo costs will be reduced using the city as point of origin and transshipment for goods for Manila and the country’s big cities," Acharon said.

In the same meeting, Acharon also announced that several groups of investors from the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA), as well as Japan, Australia and the US have lined up their various business proposals, mainly through the efforts of the Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM), a US-funded clearing house here.