UBIC BAY FREEPORT—A Taiwanese company has launched the P15-billion Tipo Hightech Eco Park (THEP) project here last week, looking to develop a 200-hectare property to accommodate light industrial factories, commercial facilities, high-end residential buildings and a nature park.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the project will be located on a 200-hectare property atop the gently rolling hills of Tipo, which is also the site of an expressway leading to this free port.
The development will be undertaken by Xantheng Subic International Corp., a Taiwanese company which is also behind the development of a high-end condominium complex at Triboa Bay here.
THEP Project Manager Jeff Lin said during the launch of the project that THEP will be a mixed-use development that will bring in more Taiwanese projects into the Subic Bay Freeport.
According to the master plan submitted by THEP to SBMA, the development will include 101.47 hectares for light industries, 17.99 hectares for a commercial complex, 7.11 hectares for mixed use, 23.16 hectares for residential buildings, and 23.16 hectares for a nature and environment conservation park.
There will also be a reserved area for utilities use and other purposes for a total development area of 209.27 hectares.
Lin said that Xantheng Subic’s project will require more than 500 workers during the development period alone. More employees will be hired when factories and businesses start operating in the area, he added.
The project is also expected to deliver to the SBMA some P5 million monthly in land rentals alone.
Lin said the THEP was conceived to accommodate the growing population of Taiwanese investors in the Subic Bay Freeport, but added that the management does not discount giving room for investments by other nationalities.
“The business atmosphere in here is very conducive and attractive, especially with the ongoing road and infrastructure projects of the SBMA,” Lin said. “Many Taiwanese companies and investors from other countries, too, are interested to locate here.”
Meanwhile, Eisma—at the project launch at the Peninsular Hotel here last week—elicited a promise from the investors to give priority hiring to qualified upland farmers of Tipo and Mabiga villages, who were part of a “social fencing” project of the SBMA which started in 2002. The 136.59 hectares they occupied under the SBMA program will be part of the THEP.
“I want you to promise me that when the factories and business are up, you will give priority to hiring these families or their children,” Eisma said, referring to the 65 families who were part of the social fencing program.
The SBMA official also thanked the farmers for their cooperation, and for allowing a very smooth and pleasant negotiation and turnover.
Eisma also congratulated Xantheng for coming up with the idea of an industrial park which will incorporate environmental conservation.
She said the THEP will be the first project in the Subic Bay Freeport to include conservation areas within industrial and commercial zones.
