MALVAR, Batangas—Gov. Hermilando I. Mandanas bared last Friday the province is rushing their infrastructure projects due to the entry of more investors into the province beginning 2018.
During the Batangas Development Summit held last Friday at the Lima Park Hotel here, he said more foreign food-processing companies will be putting up their manufacturing plants here.
“We are going to have many investors in food production this year. These are coming not only from Japan, but also from China,” he said, without citing their exact number and total amount of investments.
The governor said they are fast-tracking the development of a food terminal, alongside the expansion of the Batangas Port, to help ease the flow of goods within and outside the province. This is because of the slow pace of securing the necessary documents to push through with the projects, he said.
“We have a one-year delay [as far as convincing the right authority] in giving us the necessary endorsement for approval, when it comes to our port [expansion and] with regards to our food terminal [establishment],” the governor noted.
Regarding the other initiatives of the provincial government, Mandanas wants Fernando Air Base in Lipa City to become a subsidiary aviation to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. He also wants to pursue the construction of a Batangas-Calamba, Laguna railways system to accelerate the growth between these two areas in Region 4A.
These development projects are aimed at “avoiding not only the traffic in the air and Metro Manila, but even the traffic on the roads,” he said.
Last December Mandanas forged a partnership with a China-based real-estate company to build an airport, a seaport and a railway system in the province. He signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Teamrise Group Co. Ltd. for six major undertakings to help promote tourism, food security and air and cargo transportation in Batangas.
The agreement includes the development of the Batangas Access Zone, the expansion of seaports and terminals and a food terminal in a 29-hectare property.
The Teamrise Group has the financial and technical expertise, as well as vast experience in the planning, design, financing, building and operating ports, railways and airports.
As a head start of the partnership, the Chinese firm will conduct a preliminary study and research on the proposed initiative and provide recommendations and technical support in relation to the building, construction and operation of the projects.
Also, the MOU allows both parties eventually to enter into a partnership or a joint venture to realize the plans.
“We are doing our part in the province and the region because I was also appointed in March 2017 to be the chairman of the Calabarzon [Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon] Development Council,” Mandanas said. Batangas continues to experience progress and has emerged as a leading hot spot of development among local economies, alongside the Philippines’s high economic growth, with its GDP growing at 6.7 percent in 2017.
Based on the 2016 National Competitiveness Index, the province is ranked ninth among all the provinces in the country as a key player in the country’s future growth. It’s the only area in Calabarzon that made it to the top 10 list.
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The development of Batangas Megalopolis as the center of the Southern Tagalog Region (Batangas, Quezon, Mindoro provinces, Marinduque , Romblon, and Palawan) will help in decongesting Metro Manila.