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SUBIC FREEPORT: The first two months of the year have
registered a slight increase in investment pledges for the Subic Bay
Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), the agency’s top official said
Tuesday.
SBMA Administrator Armand C.
Arreza said that at end-February, his office had approved 30 new
investment projects worth $12.3 million, or 7 percent higher
compared with the same period last year.
The SBMA board of directors gave
the green light to 10 new projects worth $6.2 million in January,
and to 20 other investment proposals worth $6.1 million the
following month.
Among the new projects, Hanafil
Golf & Tour, Inc., a South Korean-owned firm, listed the biggest
investment commitment at $3 million.
The company, which will establish
and operate golf, tour and other related recreational facilities,
also expects to hire as many as 1,495 workers when it reaches full
operations, according to a profile submitted to the SBMA Business
and Investment Department.
The next biggest new investors
are Palmgold Int’l Ltd. of Malaysia, which committed $1.9 million
for the importation of gaming equipment and operation of slot
machine arcade, and Grand Pillar International Development, Inc.,
which will also invest $1.9 million to acquire and improve
real-estate properties at the Subic Bay Freeport.
The other new investor-firms
sharing the top ten list are Filipino-owned Janburlai Corp. and M.
Waseem International Corp. of Pakistan, which both pledged $800,000;
Transequip Co. Ltd. with $725,000; Wonjun International Corp. with
$607,000; Dong Yang Food Machinery Philippines Corp. with $468,000;
Builenc Phil Co., Ltd. Corp. with $391,000; Ringsthree Inc. with
$220,000; and Mini Melts Ice Cream Dream Corp., and Gaon
International, Inc., which both committed $200,000.
Arreza said the SBMA is “highly
optimistic” that the increases posted in the first two months of
this year would set the pace for the rest of the year.
“Given this growing investment
trend that started two years ago, when Subic breached the $1-billion
year-end total, chances are [we] would get a higher investment
output for the third succeeding year,” Arreza added.
--Katrina Mennen A. Valdez
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