Subic investments to hit over $ 2-B

Investments in the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) are expected to hit over $ 1.9 billion from only $ 190 million last year given the huge Korean investments pouring into the Freeport.

SBMA administrator Armand C. Arreza revealed this to reporters at the groundbreaking ceremony for the regional leaf warehouse facility of Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. in Subic Freeport.

Korean investments include tourism investments in Neocove project with $ 1 billion project cost, another $ 1 billion project of Korean firm M Castle and the P3 billion commercial project of Ayala Group .

?We are just awaiting for the implementing rules and regulations of Executive Order 675 that expands the Freeport area outside of the main zone to include Olongapo and parts of Hermosa, Bataan,? Arreza said.

Arreza said Neocover alone is investing $ P1 billion for its tourism development in a 400-hectare facility in the Cawag area.

For its first phase, Neocove is investing $ 312.146 million for the construction of an island resort, Annika Golf course resort and a town center.

Stockholders of this Korean firm are Heung-A Property Group and Daewoo Securities.

The Ayala Group is also putting up a P3-billion mall in an eight-hectare lot inside the main Freeport zone near the gate but its expansion into a commercial development would be located outside outside somewhere in Rizal and Magsaysay Avenue in Olongapo City.

On the other hand, another Korean-owned M Castle is also investing $ 1 billion for another tourism and commercial establishment project.

M Castle has already reserved about 600 hectares of which 360 hectares are allotted as buildable lots in Morong, Bataan.

Other investments this year would come from the privatization of the port terminal.(PNA)