Subic eyeing new Chinese investors

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is targeting the business sector of China to invest inside this premier Freeport as the agency promotes the area as an investment site, as part of an intensified thrust to gain substantial investments despite the global crisis.

SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said Subic officials will be visiting the city of Suzhou in China next week in the hope of bagging more investments after fresh capital infusions from countries like South Korea and Taiwan seemed to be tapering off.

As of the latest SBMA record, investments by Chinese firms at the Subic Bay Freeport stood this year at only $12.7 million, the sixth biggest in terms of nationality here.

Arreza said that while SBMA’s April 2009 tally showed that Korean firms still had the biggest investment commitments here at $2.76 billion, Korea’s investment momentum in the manufacturing sector that was started by shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Company in 2006 had significantly waned.

“So we’re looking for more diversified investments to cushion the effects of any economic downturn on the Freeport’s revenue and employment generation efforts,” Arreza said. By JONAS REYES - Manila Bulletin