Putrajaya City, Malaysia – MTD Capital Berhad said it expects to award the first of four major contracts for the P13.6-billion, Phase 1A of the National Government Administrative Center project in Clark to a major contractor by the last week of March.
MTD Capital acting chief executive Kim Siew Tee said major contractors submitted proposals for Phase 1A of the NGAC project. “We have to clear this now. Time is of the essence,” he said.
MTD Philippines Inc., the Malaysian conglomerate’s Philippines unit, said it was committed to deliver Phase 1A in one and a half years, or until Oct. 15, 2019 in time for the Southeast Asian Games to be held in Manila in November of the same year.
Tee said final negotiations were ongoing, but the mother company had yet to be apprised of the recent details.
MTD Philippines said under its unsolicited proposal, it was expecting to finish the construction of a government office, two blocks of apartments for government employees and a sports complex with a stadium, an aquatic facility and two blocks of apartments for athletes not later than October 2019.
Tee said the Philippine subsidiary would start earning from the project upon completion of the sports complex for a period of five years with the Philippine government having an option to accelerate payment to less than five years.
He said for the government facilities, the payment option was still under final negotiations for a longer tenure of about seven to 10 years.
Tee said the Philippine government wanted a longer payment option of up to 10 years for the government facility component under Phase 1A.
“BCDA [Bases Conversion and Development Authority] is a tough negotiator but fair,” the company said.
MTD Philippines plans to tap the Philippine financial market to raise about P9.5 billion for Phase 1A. Project equity is about P4.1 billion.
The P121.8-billion NGAC is a component of the ambitious New Clark City project of state-run BCDA.
Meanwhile, BCDA is inviting investors for the construction of an access road from Clark International Airport to New Clark City and for the operations and maintenance of the Clark airport.
BCDA senior vice president for business development and operations group Joshua Bingcang said the agency was prepping up Clark City as Asia’s next aerotropolis.
“Clark is on its way to becoming Asia’s next aerotropolis with the development not only of the airport, but the Clark Freeport as well, and the construction of the first smart, green and resilient New Clark City,” he said
Aerotropolis is the concept of developing a city with an airport at its center.