Bredco eyes conversion of Bacolod reclamation area into economic zone
BACOLOD CITY – City Legal Officer Atty. Allan Zamora sees no problem with the plan of Bacolod Real Estate Development Corporation (Bredco) to convert the 250 hectares reclaimed property into a special economic zone.
Zamora said Bredco can go ahead with their plan as long as it will not affect the Bacolod port.
The port under the Comprehensive Revised Reclamation Agreement (CRRA) is owned by the city but operated by Bredco by virtue of an agreement for 25 years.
Bredco undertook the reclamation of the property part of which is now being used as a port of Bacolod City.
Bredco's lawyer Atty. Rosellier Maalat confirmed that their application with Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for the conversion of 250-hectare property into an economic zone is still pending.
"But I do not know if it will cover all or a portion only of the reclaimed property,” Maalat said referring to the application.
Maalat further said that granting PEZA approves the conversion of the entire reclamation area it would still be beneficial on the part of the city's plan to take over the operation of the Bacolod port.
Reports from PEZA revealed that the venture was already approved in the month of January for fiscal incentives including the proposed expansion of project of UP North Property Holdings, the developer and operator of the UP Science and Technology Park in Quezon City, for the construction of for Information Technology (IT) buildings that will house call centers and business process outsourcing companies, at a cost of P1.478 billion.
The area will be considered as mixed-use economic zone suited for manufacturing and tourism projects and expected to go on full commercial operation by June this year.
Bredco, owned by the Palanca group with Negros Occidental-based businessmen as the major stockholders, wants to position itself as a free zone seeing the strategy as the most practical and realistic way of marketing to attract investors during crisis, eyeing Asian and European investors who still have the appetite for light industry manufacturing.
As a free trade zone, products are semi-manufactured for final assembly, or packaging activities inside the zone then they could re-export the products.
The new zone is located at the back of an international and domestic seaport with existing warehouses. Bredco intends to start developing the 20 hectares, initially employing 1,000 workers out of the 250 hectares.