The municipality of Cordova, lead by Mayor Adelino B. Sitoy and members of the Sangguniang Bayan recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Zan Hai International Trade, Ltd., a Korean investor group.
Mayor Sitoy said that linkages such as this one has a 'great significance' to their municipality especially to their aim of raising their level from being a fourth class municipality to a first class town.
"If these investments will successfully be pursued and materialize, this will be great for the people of Cordova. We want to rise and become a first class town but we cannot do this alone, we need investors," said Sitoy.
He said that Cordova bears a lot of economic potentials because of its 4,000 hectares of reclaimable lot which can attract investments in infrastructure and trade.
Sitoy said that in the reclaimable lot, they have reserved 700 hectares for a proposed port area development which is also eyed for possible investments in tourism such as beach resorts.
Other than this proposed project, Sitoy said that they are also looking forward to the 40 km bridge project that will connect Bohol and Cebu which has been approved by the Regional Development Council (RDC) that will allow a cheaper transportation of potable water sourced from Bohol to cater to the growing demand of Cebu.
The feasibility study for this proposed project is currently funded by the Korean government and the project is expected to cost around $3 million US dollars or P42 billion.
Sitoy said that this project line up will not only anchor the development of Cordova as a municipality but provide a big boost to Cebu and its neighboring provinces.
Zan Hai International Trade, Ltd chief executive officer Ji Young Mo said that for several years their company have done international trading and they have forged joint ventures focused on Taiwan, China and Korea.
He said that Cebu is an attractive place for Koreans to come not only as tourists but as well as investors because of its potential and attractiveness as a city plus the fact that there are 32 flights a week from Seoul, Korea to Cebu which will make trading easy.
Mo said that after having seen the proposed projects of Cordova and having been to its proposed reclamation area; he was impressed and saw that the town is an “underdeveloped jewel” with tons of potential.
“We are very committed and interested to introduce the city of Cordova to our colleagues and friends in Korea. We are very interested in a full cooperation and productive relationship with the people of Cebu and Cordova as well as bringing investments to the municipality,” said Mo.
According to Bong Huan “Charlie” Cho, CEO of the Cordova Development Committee, the MOU aims to foster linkages with Zan Hai International and that for a period of one year, the group should bring in investments to Cordova concentrated on areas such as the proposed golf course, port development, schools, medical facilities, subdivisions and the development of Hilotongan as a tourist spot.
“The Zan Hai group has very good background but they have been focusing their attention on Taiwan and China so with this linkage, we hope that they can shift their focus on bringing investments to Cebu especially to Cordova,” said Cho.
Currently Yeogang Highschool, a secondary educational institution based in Korea is eyeing to put up a satellite or a sister school in Cordova and its owner was present in the ceremony who also expressed interest in providing extended studies and student exchanges.
Chun Kyung Chul, the chairman of the Korean Association said that currently there are 15, 000 Koreans living in Cebu and there are many of them who have put up their own businesses in the province because of the high economic activity in the area.