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LEGAZPI
CITY, Albay—The Sunwest group of companies of young
Bicolano businessman Elizaldy S. Co is investing at
least P16 billion over the next three years in the
tourism, real-estate, information-technology, retail,
tourism and renewable energy, aviation and mining
industries.
In an
interview with select reporters on the sidelines of the
launch of his Discovery Bay Misibis project on August 8,
Co said his projects are “designed to stimulate the
local economy and give more employment to its
residents.”
The bulk
of Co’s projects are in renewable energy, where he
intends to spend about $300 million (P13.2 billion) to
construct various mini-hydro and hybrid power projects
in Luzon and Visayas “in the next two years.”
Only
last month, Co’s Sunwest Water and Electric Co. Inc.
inaugurated two renewable-energy projects in Catanduanes
(2.3 megawatts) and in Misibis, Cagraray Island (2.7
mw), making use of hydro-, solar- and wind-power
sources. Suweco is also starting work on an 8-mw
mini-hydroelectric power plant in Antique.
Other
power plants in the pipeline are three more
mini-hydropower plants for Antique, another three in
Catanduanes, “and by 2010, more renewable-energy plants
in Negros Occidental, Iloilo City and Cagayan,” the
Bicolano businessman said.
The
power projects are funded from internally generated
funds, he said, as well as loans from the Development
Bank of the Philippines, Allied Bank, Philippine
National Bank and Bank of the Philippine Islands.
He said
he started investing in RE projects because “they are
good for the environment and acceptable to the people.
We can no longer ignore the problem of climate change.”
The
low-key Co, who made his fortune in the construction
business, is also investing some P1.6 billion to build
the Embarcadero, a retail, hotel and leisure project
anchored on an information and communications technology
center.
“Embarcadero is a major waterfront development,
patterned somewhat after the Fisherman’s Wharf in San
Francisco, and will be comprised of a call center, a
mall, market, restaurants and a hotel.” The call center
alone, he said, will occupy 31,000 sq m of the total
51,000-sq-m Embarcadero site.
He said
business-process outsourcing (BPO) firms such as
TeleTech, Convergys and Sutherland Global Services have
been contacted for the possibility of putting up BPO
units in the Embarcadero. “We have already started
training prospective call-center agents” for the
possible jobs that will be opened.
A
separate P1.6 billion, the 38-year-old construction
magnate said, will be spent on his 400-hectare Misibis
Residential Estate and Discovery Bay Misibis in Cagraray,
in the municipality of Bacacay in Albay. Both projects
are fronting the Albay Gulf.
The
Misibis Residential Estate is comprised of 300
residential lots sold to Filipino-American retirees for
private development. Discovery Bay Misibis will be
composed of 38 luxury villas and 100-room three-story
resort units.
To serve
as another amenity for Discovery Bay Misibis, Co is also
eyeing the development of a hot spring-mud bath spa
facility at “Boiling Lake,” a hot sulfur-rich lake in
the municipality of Manito. He has yet to determine the
total cost for this project, which he is targeting to
build in 2010.
According to Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano,
Misibis was declared by President Arroyo as a tourism
estate zone, the third of such zones in the country
after Palawan and Laoag,” Durano explained. |
