JAPANESE SHIPBUILDERS EYEING SUBIC

JAPANESE SHIPBUILDERS EYEING SUBIC
Japanese shipbuilders have expressed interest to set up operations in the envisioned 100-hectare shipbuilding hubin the Subic Freeport, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Feliciano Salonga said. Salonga reported this upon his arrival from a four-day trade and investment mission in Tokyo to lure Japaneseshipbuilders to partake in the country's Domestic Shipping Development Plan (DSDP). According to Salonga of members of the Shipbuilders' Association of Japan have expressed keen interst to explore business potentials of Subic Freeport. Salonga has offered SBMA to the japannese shipbuilders a prime location to construct various types of ship for the domestic inter-island trade such as tankers, passenger and roll-on roll-of (RORO) cargo vessels for local deployment. "The entry of Japanese shipbuilders would surely boost our domestic shipping development program,"Salonga said. Salonga, along with SBMA deputy administrator Ferdinand Hernandez anmd Investment Processing department headRonnie Yambao amd consultant for loators and intergovermental affairs Ben Natividad, conducted a presentation of the ongoing shipbuilding project in Subic Freeport before SAJ members and officers led by its managing directorYoshihiro Midorikawa. (Cont'd on page B-3)