The ambitious plan to build the Manila Financial District may fall under the Private-Public Partnership Program (PPP) of the Aquino administration, Mayor Alfredo Lim said on Wednesday, adding that the project has attracted the attention of South Korean firms.

During an exclusive roundtable with The Manila Times, Lim said that the plan for the financial district was submitted to the Economic Cluster of the Cabinet for review and possible endorsement as a PPP project.

“We plan to finish the financial center by 2016,” Lim said. “The financial center is also expected to generate a minimum of 150,000 jobs with Manila residents as priority in the employment process,” he added.

He said that the Manila Financial District, originally called the Global Financial Hub, would be built under the Manila Bay South Harbor Expanded Port Zone Project through the efforts of foreign-based investors led by Incheon Metropolitan City international adviser Rev. Dr. Jeon Dae Gu and Easy Led Corp. Philippines president Man Young Yoon.

A total of 17 South Korean companies presented the concept of the financial district to Lim.
The cost of the project was pegged at $4 billion.

“The new financial hub will be built at no cost to the government because all the funds will be provided by 17 Korean companies,” the mayor said.

He said that the Manila Financial District will have an edge over the existing ones in the metropolis because it will be located on a waterfront. The most popular financial or central business districts in the country today are the Ayala Center in Makati City and Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.

“It [Manila] will be a business city [again, because before] the city was used to be the home of the Manila Stock Exchange until it merged with the Makati Stock exchange to create the Philippine Stock Exchange during the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos,” Lim said.

“I want to restore back Manila as a financial center so the businessmen will be back here,” he added.

The proposed Manila Financial
Center will have commercial buildings as high as 60 storeys that would sit on the 90-hectare land which at present is home to dilapidated buildings, old store rooms and parking lot of cargo trucks.

New stock exchange
The centerpiece of the proposed financial hub is a 101-storey building that can house the stock exchange, and will easily be the tallest structure in the Philippines.

Lim added that the financial center is also expected to boost tourism in the city, since it will be operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can receive cruise ships carrying foreign tourists.

Annually, the cruise ships can bring in two million tourists to the country.

To make way for the financial district, all the ports in the seafront of Manila will have to be located to Batangas City or Subic, a move which will also decongest traffic in the city caused by large cargo trucks.

“The port activities in the north and south harbor would be moved to the Batangas and Subic ports,” Lim said.

The mayor said that he first offered 20 hectares of land in Manila for the financial district.
However, the Korean companies found that area too small and asked for at least 90 hectares.

Lim said that the city government measured the area where the financial district would be built, and came up with 96 hectares including the Baseco compound.

He said that residents in the Baseco compound could be relocated to a high-rise housing project which will also be built at no cost by the Korean investors.