Subic Bay’s foreign direct investments reach $1.1 billion

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Foreign direct investments (FDIs) here have reached $1.11 billion (around P51 billion) as a resort project proposed by Korean property developer M Castle Philippines Ltd. Co. topped them all by the end of the first half of this year.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority’s Business and Investment Group (SBMA-BIG) announced that the South Korean company has committed a total of $350,000 (over P16 million) upon signing in as Subic-registered business last January, and then pledged an entire $1 billion (around P46.4 billion) on May 7 for the resort project.

M Castle’s entry into the Subic Freeport “greatly boosted Subic’s FDI generation this year,” said SBMA Administrator and CEO Armand Arreza.

SBMA records indicated that before M Castle’s project was approved, new FDIs in the free port stood at $114.58 million (P5.316 billion), out of the $185.87 million (P8.624 billion) total commitments generated in the first six months.

Overall employment projection for the new investment projects, meanwhile, was placed by the SBMA at 6,833.

Arreza said M Castle would develop a 615-hectare property at the nearby community of Morong in Bataan. The project, to be called Resom Resort City-Subic, would include the development of an integrated world-class recreational leisure resort featuring beach condo units and villas, a five-star casino-hotel, a marina club, as well as 36-hole golf course. By JONAS REYES = mb.com.ph