Osmeña to Ink Pact with CIPC on SRP Promotion (Nov 2006)

The Freeman 11/12/2006

The City Council has authorized Mayor Tomas Osmeña to enter into a memorandum of agreement with Cebu Investment Promotions Center (CIPC) to promote the 295-hectare South Road Properties as investment destination for both local and international investors.

In her proposed resolution, Majority Floor Leader Jocelyn Pesquera said the city government needs to tap the CIPC to handle the promotion and marketing of SRP. She said that in return, the city would pay CIPC P4,586,916.
The CIPC is a foundation whose primary purpose is to promote investment in the region.

The SRP, which is registered with Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as a special economic zone, is now in its final stages of completion. Designed for mixed land use, it can easily accommodate manufacturing, commercial, tourism and information technology service enterprises.

Unlike the North Reclamation Project and the Mandaue City Reclamation Project, the SRP is no longer entirely devoted to manufacturing and export processing.

Since CIPC has been marketing the SRP as a prime mixed land use development project, it will be sub-zoned to accommodate investments in light manufacturing, tourism, information technology and other service enterprises.

In August 1995, the city government availed of the official development assistance loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation worth 12.3 billion yen to finance the SRP.

The SRP was then declared a special economic zone through Presidential Proclamation No. 763 issued on January 20, 2005, four years after the completion of the reclamation works in 2000. - Garry B. Lao/LPM