Negros 1st cyber center: Loan delays hamper project completion

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The multi-million Negros First Cyber Center, which began construction in February 2012, may not be completed in October this year, its target date of completion, due to the delay in the approval of loans to finance its construction.

Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Enrique Pinongan said the three-storey 2.7-hectare Cyber Center, located at the Paglaum Sports Complex in this city, is only 43-percent complete as of this time.

The first phase of its construction has a budget of P450 million, which is under loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), but the Capitol is still waiting for the P243 million balance not yet released by the bank.

Throughout the period that the loan balance was not consummated; the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued a new memorandum on the requirements for government loans: The MB has to endorse the loan first before the DBP could release it to the provincial government.

At present, Gov. Alfredo Maranon Jr. is asking the Provincial Board to pass an ordinance authorizing him to enter into a loan agreement with the DBP in the amount of P243,630,460 to fund the completion of the first phase of the construction of the Cyber Center.

PB Member Salvador Escalante, chairman of the finance and appropriations committee, however said on Wednesday that the PB had deferred the approval of the governor's endorsement, because it will still invite bank representatives to its next regular session for clarifications of some loan details.

Meanwhile, the second phase of the Cyber Center construction has a budget of P170 million, for which the governor is also asking the PB to authorize him to enter into a loan agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for such amount that will be taken from the standby loan fund of the Capitol at the LBP.

The Cyber Center, when fully functional, is estimated to cost a total of P650 million, but Maranñon said rentals from businesses that will occupy it will pay for the amount within eight years.

The Cyber Center, envisioned to be an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) complex, is projected to have a workforce of 6,000 employees from the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, generating aggregate annual salaries of about P1 billion, Marañon said.

It is projected to help generate 12,000 jobs by 2016, the other 6,000 of which are expected to come from the non-voice sector-games and software development, animation, and medical transcription and billing-that offers a promising prospect of another P1 billion in annual salaries for the young workforce of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental. (FREEMAN)