Increase in Davao investments seen

By Cheneen R. Capon
Investments for Davao Region are expected to increase this year after suffering a drop last year, an official said.
Bureau of Investments (BOI) Davao Extension Office chief Gil M. Dureza said most of the big ticket projects entered the region in 2013.
Dureza said no more big projects entered the region last year. The region recorded a total of P20.4 billion in investments during the 3rd quarter of 2014.
This is supported by a statement from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) 11 director Maria Lourdes Lim, who earlier reported that “a contraction is noted in 2014, due to unrealized investments, including in real estate, that were committed in 2013 which were no longer posted for 2014.”
“In addition, private investments in 2013 got its primary boost from San Miguel Consolidated Power Corp.’s P25 billion 300-megawatt (MW) coal fired power plant in Malita, Davao del Sur – the biggest single investment in 2013,” Lim added.
However, Dureza said that 2015 posts a brighter prospect as new players are expected to come in this year.
These new players, he said, include investors who are interested to build an oil depot, hotels and ship building business.
Earlier, Davao del Sur Gov. Claude Baustista told Edge Davao that two foreign shipbuilding companies expressed interest in expanding companies’ operations in municipalities of Sta Cruz and Malita this year.
Bautista said the two firms have an estimated combine investments of US$20 billion.
One of the firms is the Hanjin Heavy Industries Corporation Philippines, a South Korean company which already has a shipyard in Redondo Peninsula on the northern edge of Subic Bay, Bautista said.
Bautista said the proposed shipyard will be the second of the same type of Hanjin and will hopefully employ more than 20,000.
The South Korean firm is planning to put the shipyard on 272 hectares of industrial park that is now being established in a property of a certain Almendras located in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, according to the governor.
Bautista did not give any further details on the expansion of the other firm but said the company, which is Japanese, is eyeing an area in an industrial area in Malita, Davao del Sur that will soon be the capital of the new Davao Occidental province.
Meanwhile, Dureza also said that two more power firms are expected to enter the region this year.
The two firms are into renewable energy which is planning to develop a hydropower plant and a geothermal power plant in the region.
He also said that expansion on agri-development in Mindanao is up for this year.
“We are expecting that with these projects, we will be able to pass the amount of total investments in 2013,” Dureza said.
Total investment for the region in 2013 reached P29 billion. These investments include energy and manufacturing projects.