Japan firms keen on Clark Green City

Japanese companies on Tuesday expressed interest to invest in Clark Green City, a 9,450-hectare project spearheaded by state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority in Tarlac province.

A delegation of Japanese executives expressed their intention to invest in the project, as BCDA and Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corp. for Transport and Urban Development, or Join, signed a joint venture agreement for a detailed master plan of the green city.

BCDA and Join signed the agreement at the launching of the Clark Green City project during the NXCities Philippines International Conference at Shangri-La Hotel in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

“Big Japanese companies have expressed interest on how they can participate together with Join,” said BCDA president and chief executive Arnel Paciano Casanova.

Join chief executive Takuma Hatano confirmed that most of the 20 Japanese companies comprising the delegation were interested to take part in the Clark Green City development that could take at least 30 years.

Join is an equity-funder on the lookout for various investment opportunities in Asia. With $1-trillion capitalization, Join exports infrastructure and businesses to countries with whom it has bilateral ties.

Casanova said by 2030, Join’s capital was expected to balloon to 30 trillion yen.

“We want to capture that kind of investment and then there is also deliberate decision coming from the Japanese government to encourage Japanese businesses to come to the Philippines,” he said.

Unlike Japan International Cooperation Authority, which is an overseas development assistance funder, Join is Japanese government-owned corporation that offers equity partnership.

Under the agreement, Join will own 55 percent of the joint venture, with BCDA taking on the minority share of 45 percent.

“This means that Japan is willing to share risk allocation with BCDA. Financial burden for BCDA will be lesser,” Casanova said.

The first project of the joint venture is the crafting of a detailed masterplan for the green city that is estimated to cost $2 million.

Casanova said a detailed master plan would lead to the creation of employment and education opportunities through the development of new industries, logistics, innovation, information and communication technology, that would be complemented through setting up of educational institutions, hospitals and mixed-used commercial and residential developments.

Once completed within a year, the detailed master plan of Clark Green City will also serve as the blueprint from which all infrastructure designs will be based.

The 9,450-hectare Clark Green City is envisioned to be the country’s first smart, green and disaster-resilient metropolis.

At full development, Clark Green City will have some 1.12 million residents, 800,000 workers and contribute a gross output of approximately P1.57 trillion per year to the national economy or roughly four percent share in the county’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).