A jewel for investors

The province of Batangas is shaping up to be one of the major economic centers in the Philippines, allowing the country to diversify its sources of growth in addition to the National Capital Region.

The Marcos administration has been looking for investors that would develop the proposed Luzon Economic Corridor project. This aims to build infrastructure projects such as ports, railways, clean energy and a semiconductor supply chain to connect Subic in Zambales, Clark in Pampanga, Manila, and Batangas with each other.

The government is not just the only entity looking to maximize Batangas’ potential, even the private sector is in it as well. And why not? There are 47 economic zones located within Batangas, and these economic zones provide a blueprint on how businesses can contribute to an area’s economic growth.

One of them is LIMA Estate, a 900-hectare PEZA-registered economic zone that is considered to be the number one selling and largest privately owned industrial estate in the country. The Aboitiz-owned mixed-use development hosts 150 locators, 167 retail stores and restaurants, 1,136-room four-star hotel, a transportation hub, and over 4,000 households with 65,000 employees.

Batangas is likewise seeing growing interest from businesses involved in the power sector. Businessman Leandro Leviste’s Countryside Investments Holdings Corp. announced it would invest P5 billion in Batangas to develop energy, commercial and industrial projects.

There’s also a growing push to build the first integrated liquefied natural gas facility in the province. In a landmark development for the Philippine energy sector, AboitizPower Corp., San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp., and Meralco PowerGen Corp., are launching the country’s first and most expansive LNG facility in Batangas. The collaboration will substantially augment the country’s power supply with over 2,500 megawatts of generation capacity once fully operational.

More recently, President Marcos led the inauguration of the expanded P1.3-billion Batangas Port Passenger Terminal Building. According to the President, the continuous expansion of the Batangas port will help decongest Manila ports and disperse economic activities across the Philippine.

He said that with the large volume of trade and passengers that it handles, the port of Batangas is so crucial that economic planners have underscored the importance of the continuous expansion of this major transportation hub to support the country’s economic transformation.

The President attributed this to the port’s multiple strategic roles – as a gateway to the nation’s dynamic capital region, a portal to agricultural powerhouses, access point to island tourism paradises, and a receiver of goods that fill and fuel the vibrancy of the economy.

Last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that Batangas province has the fastest growing economy in the Calabarzon region. The economy of the province grew by 12.5 percent in 2021, surpassing the 7.6 percent GDP growth of the region, from a declined growth rate of negative 14.4 percent in 2020. After the eruption of Taal Volcano, the crisis caused by COVID-19, and the passing typhoons, Batangas exhibited the fastest economic recovery in the entire region, the PSA said.

While the economy of Batangas continues to grow with all the industries and investments in the province providing jobs and economic benefits to its people, the province ironically continues to underperform in terms of quality of life for small businesses and its people in the form of consistent power outages and high electricity bills charged to consumers. Given that these cooperatives provide 90 percent of Batangas’s energy needs since industrial estates usually manage their own power supply, their failure will have profound effects on the province’s economic trajectory.

Reliable, affordable and accessible energy is needed to maximize an area’s economic potential. This is because energy is one of our basic needs, and no inclusive development can take place without basic needs being met.

There’s room for optimism that Batangas will resolve these issues given the interest it has attracted from investors. Once all of these planned investments from the private sector and government come into reality, Batangas will solidify itself as a jewel for investors by experiencing a wave of economic growth it has not seen before.

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