A Chinese textile manufacturing company is set to sign an investment deal in Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport.
Cagayan Economic Zone Authority president and chief executive Raul Lambino said the Chinese company relayed the plan during the second Belt and Road Initiative Forum held in Beijing.
Lambino said the textile producer was among the major Chinese companies interested in investing in CSEZP in Sta. Ana, Cagayan. Ceza is the administrator of the 54,000-hectare ecozone.
“Ceza would be signing a series of MOUs [memorandum of understanding] with major Chinese companies for various investments in the zone, among them a mega textile manufacturing venture,” he said Tuesday during the Boao Forum for Asia-Manila Conference hosted by the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
Ceza currently hosts 26 financial technology companies which are mostly Chinese.
The second Silk and Belt Initiative forum is the second of a series of fora and investment matching sessions for countries in Asia.
The Trade Department announced earlier that the Philippines would sign about $10 billion worth of investments and trade deals including the textile deal of Ceza
Once signed, the agreements are expected to yield 20,000 new jobs for the Filipino workforce.
More than 15 agreements, which cover trade and investment deals on food, energy, power, infrastructure, technology and services, were expected to be signed by Chinese and Philippine companies during the forum.
Lambino said that in 2018, the number of locators in CSEZP increased 21 percent while committed investments climbed 44 percent to $8.13 billion.
The biggest project is the $4.5-billion entertainment resort project City Polaris which was approved in 2018. It was followed by the $1.5-billion investment by Hunan Goke Maglev Technology Development Ltd. of Changsa City and Hong Kong-based Eminova Asset Management Ltd. to put up a magnetic levitation production facility.
Other investments are Shanghai’s Jucheng Supply Management Group’s $100-million integrated resort and the $100-million initial investment for “green” textile production and real estate development by Zhejiang Guannan Group.
A Slovak firm also proposed to build a modern hospital and while a Taiwanese company is investing $30 million for the production of electric vehicles.