By HENRY EMPEÑO

 

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Bangkok-based Mahanakorn Partners Group Co., Ltd. will be undertaking feasibility studies of major infrastructure projects to be built here under the government’s transportation infrastructure development program.

The Thai holding company with interests in business consulting, legal and trade finance, as well as property management and development, signed here last week a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) to conduct the studies free of charge.

The agreement was signed by MPG managing partner Luca Bernardinetti and SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma.

According to Eisma, the Subic agency has proposed the projects under the “Greater Subic Bay Freeport Multimodal Transport and Access and Logistics Support Projects” program, which was designed in support of President Duterte’s “Ten Point Agenda” to accelerate infrastructure spending and pump-prime economic development through productivity, trade and investment.

The projects are expected to be funded through the P3.1-trillion allocation for transportation infrastructure development set by the National Economic Development Authority under the country’s P7.27-trillion infrastructure development requirements.

“The projects focus on the different infrastructure developments to be established in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to catalyze its upgrading towards being a premier free port zone in Asia and the Pacific,” Eisma said.

“We want to help resolve congestion at the Port of Manila and ease traffic gridlock in the metropolis while shifting the momentum of development north toward the corridor of new wealth in Subic and Clark,” she added.

Under the MOU, Mahanakorn Partners will gauge the viability of three major infrastructure projects proposed for implementation in the Subic Bay Freeport.

These are the construction of a 17.273-kilometer bypass road connecting the Subic seaport terminals directly to the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX); construction of a 17-kilometer bypass road Subic seaport to Segment 7 of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), a two-lane cargo trucks expressway and railway system, and a 25-kilometer bypass road from Tipo Road in Bataan to Castillejos, Zambales; and the upgrading of the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA).

The first project is designed to provide exclusive routes for cargoes brought in and out of Subic Freeport, while the second proposal seeks to open up a 3,000-hectare new industrial site at Subic’s Redondo Peninsula near the Hanjin shipyard.

The upgrading of the existing Subic airport, meanwhile will make it a viable alternative to the heavily congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport, as well as a strategic transshipment and logistics hub in the Asian region.

Eisma said there is a felt need to carry out these projects because Subic and the nearby Clark Freeport “are now at the epicenter of development as drivers of economic growth in the country.”

The SBMA official also stressed that under the agreement with Mahanakorn, the feasibility studies on the proposed projects will be undertaken at no cost to the Subic agency, and that it would have no future legal or financial commitment from the SBMA.

The agreement between the two parties will remain in force for one year, but may be extended upon mutual consent, Eisma said.