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Subic Bay
Freeport—Touted as the longest and the most modern
expressway in the Philippines today, the 94-km
Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is now expected to
synergize the potentials of Subic and Clark free ports,
the two key ingredients in the country’s bid to be a major
service and logistics hub in Southeast Asia. Thanks to
SCTEx, Subic Bay Freeport, which is being developed into a
major maritime logistics and service center in East Asia,
is now just 40 minutes away from Clark, recently named as
Airport of the Year for Asia and the Pacific under the
less than 15-million-passengers-a-year category.
But more
than a P22.5-billion freeway link between two bustling
economic centers, SCTEx, which is due for formal opening
in end-April, is a crucial investment for a far-ranging
development effort to make the Subic-Clark area a gateway
to international trade and a catalyst for local economic
growth, officials said.
“It’s an
integral part of the plan to establish a world-class
logistics and services infrastructure in
Central Luzon using
Subic and
Clark as economic springboards,” explained Subic Bay Metropolitan
Authority (SBMA) Administrator Armand Arreza.
“This is
the road to convergence,” Arreza added. “The vision for
Subic and Clark as globally competitive economic-growth
centers wouldn’t carry as far without the SCTEx.”
According
to the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council (SCADC),
a multi-agency body that crafts common programs for Subic,
Clark and other economic zones in Central Luzon, the SCTEx
serves three purposes: link Subic, Clark and the Luisita
Industrial Park in Tarlac; help boost foreign and local
investments in Central Luzon; and link the Subic-Clark
megalogistics hub to other components of the Luzon Urban
Beltway Super Region.
Areza said
the SCTEx, along with the Port of Subic and Clark’s
Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), will
provide “a seamless and efficient flow of goods, people
and services between the point of origin and the point of
consumption.”
“The
expressway will serve as the medium for the seamless
transport of goods and services among the neighboring
economic zones in Central Luzon, and connect the Subic-Clark
logistics hub to
North Luzon and Manila,”
he said.
Under this
setup, the Subic port will serve as a networking site for
the SCADC megalogistics hub—providing the “land and sea
interface” to ships and cargo, while DMIA will place the
Subic-Clark logistics center just three hours away from
major trade centers in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The
development of the Subic-Clark logistics hub will also
directly impact on the so-called Subic-Clark Economic
Corridor.
Among the
primary and support industries expected to grow in the
corridor are information and computer technology,
transportation, warehousing, material handling, packaging,
ecotourism, medicine and personal well-being, and
education.
The Arroyo
government said the immediate impact could be felt in the
tourism sector, which reported a record-breaking number of
visitors when the SCTEx opened from March 18 to 25 for a
limited-hour dry run.
In a
report attributed to the Bases Conversion and Development
Authority, which implemented the construction of the SCTEx,
it was said that more than 50,000 vehicles took advantage
of the dry run to enjoy toll-and hassle-free travel
between the two free ports.
In Subic,
which greatly benefited from the SCTEx trial run during
the Holy Week, tourism-oriented establishments enjoyed
brisk business because of faster travel from Manila and
other areas in Luzon.
Arreza
said some 12,000 to 13,000 vehicles used the SCTEx to get
to Subic, thereby swelling the number of tourists and day
visitors to almost 100,000 during the four-day weekend.
Subic
businessmen, of course, had only praises for what is now
considered the expressway to greater opportunities.
John
Corcoran, president of the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of
Commerce, said the SCTEx will have a positive impact all
over the Subic Bay Freeport, as well as in areas along the
93.7-km stretch of the expressway.
“This is
going to be very exciting,” said Yvett Ocampo-Desiongco,
CEO of Subic’s newly opened theme park Jungle Joe’s World.
She said
Subic can now count on more visitors, not only from Metro
Manila and
South Luzon areas, but also those from
North
Luzon.
The
benefits of convergence as promised by SCTEx, however, is
captured fully by tour operator Charles Davis, owner of
the Subic-based Seahorse Tours and Souvenirs, who said the
SCTEx has created out of
Subic and
Clark “one superdestination.”
Subic,
which is popular for natural attractions like beaches,
triple-canopied forests and wildlife theme parks, is now
just 40 minutes away from
Clark, where “fine hotels, casinos and golf courses” could be
found,
Davis said.
With the
SCTEx, “Subic gains an additional international airport,
Subic Bay and Angeles City will be able to share
attractions, and Manila also becomes much closer,” he said
in his company’s web site.
He added
that the increase in the number of flights and
destinations at both the Subic Bay International Airport
and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport “is
opening the area to [more] international guests.”
Because of
this,
Davis said his Subic-based travel agency is now expanding its area
of coverage to include the
Clark economic zone, adding six establishments in
Clark and
Angeles City to its list of represented hotels. | 
