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TWO
years from now, the local government of the first-class
municipality of Naga in Cebu province expects to rake in
an estimated P100 million in revenues upon completion of
a planned port.
This was
what Naga Mayor Valdemar Chiong told reporters here on
the sidelines of the launch Wednesday of the country’s
first special economic zone for small and medium
entrepreneurs.
Chiong
said while the municipal government still has no master
plan for the port, it will support companies locating
inside the 250-hectare mixed-use highland SME Industrial
Park owned by Planters Development Bank.
Chiong
explained that the initial plan is to expand the
existing port at the back of the municipal hall from
three hectares to six hectares.
“Currently, the port can only accommodate two cargo
vessels and there’s a long turnaround time for these
vessels because of the lack of space,” Chiong said,
adding that the local government rakes in P100,000 a
month from the use of the ramp alone on the port by
these vessels. He told reporters that Planters Bank flew
in from Manila that he expects revenues from the
expanded port to be 10 times that. The vessels are
mostly loading cement for export manufactured by Apo
Cement Inc.
Chiong
said municipal officials are “projecting for the
future,” referring to the expected operations of the
Korean coal firm Korea Electric Power Corp. (KepCo) of
its plants by 2010.
Near
Chiong’s planned port expansion is one of 44 domestic
ports in this southern Philippine province.
Cebu
serves 85 percent of the Philippines’ shipping lines
that work out of these domestic ports and the Cebu
International Port.
A
government statement two years ago announced that Salcon
Power Corp. and Korean Electric Power Co. will invest
$270 million to construct two 100-megawatt (MW)
coal-fired power plants to augment power supply in the
province of Cebu by 2008.
Kepco
executives on Monday were quoted by local newspapers as
saying the two coal-fired power plants with a capacity
of 100 megawatts each in Naga town would be operational
in 2010.
“That’s
what we are waiting for,” Chiong said.
In a
separate interview, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia
confirmed the plans to put up the port.
“We will
focus on key projects to provide the necessary
infrastructure. The port in Naga…is an urgent need,”
Garcia said. She explained that the planned port would
form a “fundamental part in the chain of operations of
exporters operating in the industrial park.”
Garcia
estimates the capital outlay for the port construction
to reach more than P15 million, which she said would be
taken from the provincial coffers.
“We have
the [financial] capacity to do it,” she said, citing
that the province has allocated the same amount for the
construction of a port in the northern tip of the
province, Bantayan, with a depth of six meters to
accommodate passenger ships.
Chiong
said the municipality’s port would be a meter deeper.
However, while a nine-meter depth is required for
ocean-going cargo vessels, Chiong said he envisions the
port to hold Roll on-Roll off (Ro-Ro) type of ships.
The port
expansion is one of several infrastructure development
plans that both officials said would support Planters
Bank’s SME Industrial Park. These projects are expected
to stir more business activities in Naga, which is 23
kilometers south of the provincial capital
Cebu
City.
Garcia
said she is also thinking of including the industrial
park in the ongoing planning for the details of a
Cebu-Hainan-Szechuan sister provinces agreement that the
governor signed in June on the sidelines of President
Arroyo’s tour of China. |
