The representatives of the firms attended the meeting with Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Department of Energy (DOE) officials for the WTE project on Wednesday afternoon, November 6, to tackle the provisions in the project.
Among them is the Cebu-based ARN Central Waste Management Inc., the proponent of the landfill and WTE facility that is now being constructed in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City.
Aside from ARN, the other firms that expressed interest in building the WTE facility are Aboitiz Power Corporation, Green Atom Renewable Energy Corp., Integrated Green Technology Visayas, New Sky Energy Inc., Waste Management Inc., Udenna Infrastructure Inc., Marubeni Philippines Corp., Metro Pacific Investment, Mardee Renewable Energy Developers Corp., and Fil Products Inc.
The province intends to place the WTE project in a Build, Transfer and Operate (BTO) scheme.
This means that the private firm will build the WTE facility at their expense and with the province-owned lot as equity. When the construction is completed, the facility’s ownership will be transferred to the province.
In turn, the private firm shall enjoy operating the facility for a renewable 25-year term while renting the provincial lot.
A 6.8-hectare provincial property in Barangay Uling, Naga City is the province’s proposed site for the WTE facility.
From their meeting, Garcia said the companies who attended were amenable to the BTO agreement.
“We will soon be putting out the Invitation to Bid (ITB), hopefully by next week, for all interested proponents. We are targetting that we will hopefully be able to award the winning proponent before the end of the first quarter next year (2020),” Garcia said.
Aside from the rental for the government lot, the winning firm will also have to remit to the Capitol at least 10 percent of their gross income in operating the facility./elb