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PRESIDENT Arroyo on Monday thanked Korea’s Hanjin Heavy
Industries and Construction Corp. for deciding to build
a $2-billion shipyard complex in Mindanao, which will
begin building ships by 2010.
Malacañang in a statement said Hanjin president Jeong
Sup Shim informed President Arroyo about the investment
when Hanjin executives paid a courtesy call on the Chief
Executive that day.
The
facility would rise at the 3,000-hectare Philippine
Veterans Investment Development Corp. Industrial Estate
in Tagoloan and Villanueva towns in Misamis Oriental.
Jeong
told the President the construction of the facility’s
general manufacturing plant would commence early next
year.
He also
said that under Phase 2 of the project, the Mindanao
plant would begin fabricating ships by 2010; by 2012 it
is expected to export an estimated $1.7 billion worth of
shipbuilding parts and vessels.
The
expansion project is expected to generate 30,000 new
jobs, particularly for engineers, welders and steel
fabricators.
Presidential Management Staff Director General Cerge
Remonde, who was at the courtesy call, said Hanjin’s
Mindanao plant would be twice as big as its shipbuilding
complex under construction in Subic Freeport Zone. |
