Kuwait firm to invest add'l $500 M in Phl

MANILA, Philippines - Global logistics group Kuwait and Gulf Link Holding Co. (KGL) has committed to invest an additional $500 million in the Philippines, its top officials said yesterday.

KGL Holdings chairman and managing director Saeed Dashti, vice chairman Marsha Lazareva, and investment director Mark Williams indicated their investment plans to President Aquino during a courtesy call in Malacañang.

The KGL Group has an existing $200-million investment in Global Gateway Development Corp. (GGDC) which is constructing the $2-billion Gateway Logistics Center at the Clark Export Processing Zone in Clark, Pampanga.

According to Trade and Industry Undersecretary Cristino L. Panlilio, the additional $500 million investment would be pumped into infrastructure logistics including Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects and other investment potentials.

Panlilio said President Aquino has instructed the Department of Trade and Industry to move expeditiously on the planned Kuwaiti investment, but the  President specified that “everything will have to be bidded out transparently.”

According to Panlilio, President Aquino hailed the KGL Group’s planned investment as a vote of confidence on the Philippines.

“This is definitely what we need here,” Panlilio said, “but of course everything will have to be bidded out transparently.”

“We cannot give out extra or special favors, but we can offer you a transparent bidding.”

GGDC, the KGL Group’s corporate vehicle in the Philippines, is building an aviation and logistics city in Clark covering 177 hectares.

It signed a 50-year lease agreement, extendable for another 25 years, with Clark International Airport Authority.

The KGL Group also has agreement with The Medical City for the construction of 17,000 square meters of space comprising a state-of-the-art care hospital and related offices in the Global Gateway Logistic City in Clark.