SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has allied with the Israeli port of Eilat under an agreement that will promote the all-water route between the Subic Bay Freeport and Israel’s only anchorage on the Red Sea.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma signed the memorandum of agreement on September 4 at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem with Eilat Port Co. Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Gideon Golber in a ceremony witnessed by President Duterte and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Eisma, who was among the Philippine officials that accompanied Duterte in his historic four-day visit to the Jewish state, said Suibic’s alliance for cooperation with Eilat “will open up doors in the area of port development and innovation” between the two maritime hubs.
“It will also serve to increase port traffic and revenue for Subic Bay, since trade routes for the movement of goods between Eilat and Subic will be firmly established,” she added.
Under the agreement, SBMA and Eilat Port Co. Ltd. will cooperate to generate new shipping business by promoting the Eilat-Subic all-water route, and to develop links for trade and investment.
Specifically, the two parties will cooperate in the areas of marketing, data interchange, market studies, modernization and improvements, training and technological exchange.
Eisma also said that the cooperation alliance with Eilat will further cement Subic’s global standing as a sea port and as a center for maritime trade.
According to Philippine Ambassador to Israel Nathaniel Imperial, it was Eilat’s Golber who proposed last April a partnership between Eilat and a Philippine port in order for the latter “to become the bridge of Israel to the rest of the Far East.”
Imperial then referred the offer to the SBMA chief last May, pointing out that the SBMA “can work with the Eilat Port management to learn more about technological innovations of Israel, which ensure the efficient and professional services of the port to its international clients.”
The Port of Eilat, which is at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, is mainly used for trading with Far East countries, as it allows vessels from Israel to reach the Indian Ocean without sailing through the Suez Canal. It is also Israel’s gateway to South Africa and Australia.
Imperial said Eilat Port was developed in 1965 and was privatized in 2013, with control going to American businessman Joseph Nakash, owner of Arkia Israeli Airlines, The Sitai boutique hotels, Jordache Enterprises, and Nakash Group of America.
About 60 percent of Israel’s vehicle imports from Japan, China, India, Thailand and South Korea now enter through Eilat Port, he added.
President Duterte, who became the first sitting Philippine president to visit Israel, said the Philippines would seek a “robust relationship” with the Jewish state in areas of economic development, trade and investments, labor, as well as defense, security and law enforcement.
The Subic-Eilat agreement was among the 11 memoranda of understanding, three memoranda of agreement and seven letters of intent signed during a forum attended by Duterte in Jerusalem last Tuesday.
Image credits: Henry Empeño