SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Investment pledges generated by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in the first seven months of this year have reached some P100 billion, marking one of the biggest half-year investment turnouts for this free port, which is admittedly running out of space for new projects.

According to SBMA Chairman Roberto Garcia, the Subic agency snared several big-ticket projects in the first half of 2016—most of them in logistics, estate development and energy—in stark contrast to the previous four years when the SBMA recorded an anemic total of only P42 billion new commitments.

The new projects will be established at prime locations in the Subic airport and the Redondo Peninsula across the bay, Garcia said in a news briefing here on Monday.

The biggest of the lot will be a P60-billon joint venture by an Australian firm with the Asian Institute of Aviation, for the establishment of an intermodal facility that would take advantage of Subic’s airport and seaport.

“They would transport agricultural products from Australia, mostly meat and seafood, repack them here, and then fly or ship them out to customers worldwide,” Garcia said.

He added that the new firm expects to turn out a volume of around 60 containers per month for the Subic seaport. “So that is going to be a big help,” Garcia said. “Their investment is going to be P60 billion for this project alone, and it will generate 800 jobs, not counting those for the construction work.”

Garcia said the project would also involve building new hangars, explaining that the investors would bring in seven jets and occupy the northeast corner of the old FedEx facility.

The new hangars will also be used for maintenance and repair operations of jets, with Hong Kong as the main target market, he said.

Garcia clarified that this commercial operation would not affect the proposed use by the Philippine Air Force of the southwest portion of the Subic airport for military training and logistics under the Expanded Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Aside from this, Garcia said the SBMA board of directors has also approved an industrial-estate project worth P34 billion at the Redondo Peninsula, near the site of the Hanjin shipyard.

The proposed industrial-estate project will include the development of a 200-megawatt solar plant and the construction of warehouses and logistics facilities, and the establishment of factories.

This will occupy around 400 hectares of land and generate around 53,000 jobs, Garcia said.

Garcia also revealed that Korean shipbuilder Hanjin, already Subic’s biggest company in terms of investments and manpower, will be putting up its own 12-megawatt solar power plant at Redondo.

Another big project that was recently approved by the SBMA board of directors was the ship-to-ship transfer operation for liquefied natural gas, which will be worth another P5 billion.

The SBMA official also said that aside from the big-ticket investments, the Subic agency has approved “a lot of smaller projects.”

“So as far as I’m concerned, in the pipeline we have for the next three to five years, there will be a lot of activity,” Garcia said.

Source: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/2016/08/01/sbma-gets-p100-billion-fresh-investment-pledges-in-h1/