Investors flock to Subic, Clark

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign and local investors continue to flock to the Clark-Subic area ahead of upcoming big-ticket projects by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA). 

SBMA chairman Martin Diño said his agency intends to develop a 3,000-hectare expansion project to be known as Subic 2.

“We will develop a 3,000-hectare project, similar to the size of Makati, which will be our answer to Clark Green City,” Diño said.

“This will create another 150,000 new jobs with 1,500 new locators with complete facilities,” he added.

According to the SBMA official, 900 hectares of the planned Subic 2 development have already been sold to a Filipino-Chinese-Singaporean consortium.

SBMA said there is no more available land space in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to cater to new investors looking for large areas for their new facilities, thus compelling the agency to endorse these investors to other areas such as Clark or Bataan.

The planned Subic Freeport expansion is part of the P140-billion projects which SBMA intends to develop within the term of President Duterte. The projects, which include construction of roads that will shorten the travel time of cargo trucks and passenger vehicles to and from Northern Luzon and Metro Manila, has been endorsed for signing of the President.

Diño said the projects have received strong interest from China, Russia, Japan and South Korea investors.

Apart from SBMA’s projects, BCDA’s Clark Green City development has likewise captured investors’ attention, according to its president and CEO Vince Dizon.

“There are a lot of interest,” Dizon said, noting that educational institution Ateneo is among the latest to indicate plans to set up in Clark Green City.

“Ateneo just sent a letter of interest, they want to reserve 80 hectares,” he said.

BCDA has earlier entered into an agreement with the University of the Philippines for the construction of the UP global campus on a 70-hectare lot inside the Clark Green City.