Philippines, China to ink deal on New Clark City ind’l park

MANILA, Philippines — The government is targeting to sign in November a financing deal with China for the establishment of an industrial park in New Clark City, Pampanga, according to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

In an interview, BCDA president Vince Dizon said the Philippines and China want to firm up the agreement on the construction of the New Clark City Industrial Park by November, in time for President Xi Jinping’s visit to Manila.

“The target is to sign the agreement in November,” Dizon told reporters.

Following the signing, Dizon said the next step would be to draw a blueprint for the industrial park, which could take about six months. This would be part of the New Clark City masterplan.

As such, the BCDA chief said the construction of the New Clark City Industrial Park may commence in the latter part of 2019.

However, he said the government has not yet determined the total cost of the project because they have yet to agree on the size of the area.

“It’s not small. Initially, they were asking 1,000 hectares...But we can’t give that to them, that’s too much. I think (we can give) anywhere between 300 and 500 hectares,” Dizon said.

Once completed, Dizon said the industrial park would house locators and companies from China.

“The deal is they develop and they also are the ones that bring in. In other words, it is a package deal,” he said.

However, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, during the same interview, said the industrial zone would be limited to light and medium enterprises only.

“We don’t want a steel plant, but if it’s a car assembly plant, it‘s possible. If it’s robotics assembly plant, possible, semiconductors, laboratories, training facilities,” the finance chief said.

According to Dizon, the industrial park in Clark would be the first of the many to be established in coordination with China, pursuant to the memorandum of understanding for cooperation on industrial parks development signed by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in November last year.

“The idea is to identify several sites and it’s really not just New Clark City. It’s several sites across the country...It’s just that the first area that they felt was ready was New Clark City primarily because of the connectivity to the airport and the adjacent infrastructure like SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway),” Dizon said.

Dominguez said New Clark City also makes a good choice as the land is already owned by the government, hence, there are no right-of-way issues that need to be settled.