At least 20,000 more jobs in the manufacturing sector will be created for Cebu following the recent investment of local developer Primary Properties Corp. (PPC) on a 36-hectare industrial park in the City of Naga.
The Naga Valley Industrial Park (Nava) is in barangay Cantao-an, City of Naga.
PPC president William Liu Jr. said they took ownership of Nava a year and a half ago.
“The company has already invested a billion pesos. We expect more investments to be poured in here,” said Liu.
The industrial park is positioned to cater to light industries cementing further Naga City’s thrust toward becoming an industrial city.
“This park is a magnet to able to bring in more employment. Everyday some residents here go to Mactan to work. Now, we bring the jobs to their place and drive more economic activity in the community,” said Liu.
“The MEPZ (Mactan Economic Processing Zone) in Mactan currently have 60,000 employees directly hired in the different locators. Here about 20,000 to 30,000,” he said.
Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) Director-General Lilia P. De Lima said they hope to bring in more companies from Japan to locate in the different economic zones in the country including Nava.
Kyocera Mita Corp. is already operating in the location employing 1,000 people.
Kyocera is a Japanese company manufacturing color printers and digital copiers.
De Lima said at least six more locators have committed to set up shop in Nava with one of them set to start operating by the first quarter of next year.
Manufacturing
“We are strongly pushing for manufacturing and agri-industrial in the country, which we think will help us achieve the inclusive growth. This is because these are the companies that hire those who are still at the high school level,” De Lima said.
“We are already number one in the voice outsourcing services and second in non-voice. It’s time that we also grow the manufacturing to help more Filipinos rise up from poverty,” she said.
She said that more companies are now looking to locate at the country because China has become very expensive and other neighboring countries have aging population.
“We are at a sweet spot. Every year we have a million Filipinos reaching working age and Filipinos have always been the most preferred by Japanese investors,” said de Lima.
She encouraged Gov. Hilario Davide III to also look at the possibility of an agri-industrial park in Cebu.
“We are already looking at an area in Argao, my hometown. There were initial positive talks already and hopefully we’ll have one soon,” said Davide.