Luigi Quisumbing
Sino company pitches metro railway project to Mandaue City officials
Chinese investors continue to explore investment opportunities in Cebu with the warming of relations between China and the Philippines.
(CRCC), an established and well-known railway company in Beijing, is the latest Chinese investor to visit Cebu specifically Mandaue City.
The Chinese railway company giant met Mandaue City officials last Sunday to state their intentions of investing in a mass transport and infrastructure in the city.
CRCC representatives presented their plans for a possible Private Public Partnership (PPP) project for a Metro Railway Transport system or an Auto Guideway Transit system to solve the traffic problem in the city.
CRCC representatives were the third group of Chinese investors looking at big-ticket projects.
The first to visit were representatives from the Chinese company, Third Harbor Engineering Ltd., who met with Cebu Provincial officials led by Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, in late November.
They discussed investment prospects in Cebu and the requirements for them to invest in the projects.
The company led by its Chairman Fang Yan was particularly interested in the Trans-axial Highway project.
On Nov. 30, Chinese billionaire and philanthropist Huang Rulun and representatives of his group, Century Golden Resources Group, met with Cebu City officials led by Mayor Tomas Osmena and visited the South Road Properties to look at investment prospects in the city.
Last Sunday, Dec. 11, CRCC also made its investment pitch to the Mandaue City government.
Mandaue City Mayor Gabriel Luis “Luigi” Quisumbing said that a fruitful presentation and overview of the proposed project had ensued between them and the Chinese company.
“This is a very capable and professional company, and I am glad that they might be interested in doing certain projects in Mandaue,” Quisumbing said in a press briefing yesterday.
He said that CRCC is responsible for over 40 percent of China’s railway system as well as 50 percent of the country’s urban railways specifically subways.
He said CRCC is also currently working on other international railway projects that aim to connect Asian countries Thailand and Laos to China.
“If you put together all the lanes of highways that they have built over China, if you put them together in one straight line, it’s two-thirds the length of the equator. You could imagine (that) large scale projects are old hat to them,” Quisumbing said.
While CRCC introduced to them the overview of the project, Quisumbing, on the other hand, tackled an overview of Mandaue City and the challenges facing the city particularly traffic congestion.
“There was an exchange of information and they asked us documents and said they would take a look to see what kind of design they can make, if they would be interested in the project. We also presented our Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). We still have to wait until they come back and say they are interested in particular projects,” Quisumbing said.
CRCC’s engineering team will be back in Cebu after the holidays to continue its study on Mandaue City’s roads and infrastructure.
When asked if Mandaue City government can execute big-ticket projects on its own, Quisumbing said that it needs the full support of the national government in terms of budget for the project’s full implementation.
Philip Tan, past president of Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, for his part, said he welcomed the Chinese investor’s intention to build a Metro Rail Transit system because it would ease traffic in the city.
However, he said that the challenge now is the translation and implementation of this intention.
“The journey is most critical. I would estimate the journey from this expression of intent to implementation to be around five years,” he said, adding that there are a lot of studies to be considered and documents to be prepared.