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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA)
will now waive rental fees for high-technology firms
from Taiwan under a bilateral agreement forged during
the joint economic conference between the Philippines
and Taiwan the other week.
The
rent-free incentive, which will also apply in Clark
Freeport, is expected to lure more firms engaged in
information and communications technology (ICT) and
software design, as well as biotechnology, to put the
country’s technological capability on a par with major
Asian economies, said SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza.
Arreza,
who joined the Philippine investment mission to Taiwan
from June 12 to 14, said Philippine officials, led by
Trade Undersecretary Thomas Aquino, made the agreement
with Taiwanese counterparts, headed by Deputy Minister
of Economic Affairs Hsieh Fa-dah.
The
talks also resulted in an agreement to grant Taiwanese
manufacturers in Subic and Clark free ports reduced
tariffs under the Asean Free Trade Area’s common
effective preferential tariff scheme beginning August 1.
Taiwan
officials, meanwhile, agreed to help out local tourism
firms in promoting the country among Taiwanese tourists,
and to send more experts to train integrated circuit
designers.
Arreza
said the waiver of rental fees for high-tech firms would
apply for five years in Subic, and for three years in
Clark, for firms that will each commit a minimum
investment of $25 million.
With
monthly rental rates in Subic ranging from $2.50 to $7
per square meter, depending on the location, the
incentive would translate to some $85,500 annual savings
for a 1,500-square-meter lot, for example. For the
maximum period of five years, this would amount to a
hefty $427,000—or some P18.95 million in today’s
exchange rate.
Arreza
said the waiver of rental fees is a good measure to lure
more technology firms for the SBMA’s long-term “Cyber
Subic” program, which focuses on developing ICT
facilities and attracting investors in the so-called
knowledge industries.
“This is
the logical next step that we have to take,” Arreza said
in a statement on Tuesday. “We’ve been pushing to
attract [high-technology] companies, and this new
incentive is a concrete manifestation of our intentions
to build our capabilities and be globally competitive.”
According to the Manila Economic Cultural Office (Meco),
which coordinated the recent investment mission to
Taiwan, the volume of Taiwanese investments in the
Philippines is expected to double this year, up to $60
million from $30 million in 2007.
Meco
director for commercial affairs Dita Angara Mathay noted
earlier that Taiwanese investors preferred to locate in
Subic and Clark due to logistics advantage, relatively
lower power rates and incentives to businesses.
The
entry of more high-technology firms is also expected
under a 2005 Philippine-Taiwan understanding that linked
Subic and Clark with Taiwan’s Kaohsiung
export-processing zone, which has one of the four
largest harbors in the world.
The
so-called Subic-Clark-Kaohsiung corridor is seen to
facilitate the flow of investments, goods and services
between Taiwan and the Philippines.
As of
April this year, cumulative investments in the Subic Bay
Freeport stood at $5.52 billion, with the biggest chunk
contributed by Korean firms, which numbered 114,
followed by Taiwanese companies, which totaled 73.
Subic’s top exporter, however, had remained for several years the
Taiwanese computer maker Wistron Infocomm Phils., which
produced $448.7 million worth of exports in 2007.
Four
other Taiwanese firms, with combined exports worth
$139.17 million, were on Subic’s list of 12 biggest
exporters last year. |
