CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga—Employees working in different companies inside the Clark economic zone reached 101,688 for the first semester of 2017, an 8.7-percent increase over the same period last year.
Noel Manankil, president of Clark Development Corp., said the increased employment inside the former American air force base was due to the sound business practices that prompted foreign and local businesses to locate here.
The freeport employed 93,467 workers in the first semester of 2016, he said.
Manankil told the fellows of the Foundation for Economic Freedom CDC’s sound business practices allowed it to attract more investors. Its expansion program “can meet and exceed the demand of their clients, especially those from abroad,” he added.
The FEF is a non-profit organization that promotes economic and political freedom and good governance, with former prime minister Cesar Virata as head of the advisory board.
Even during the height of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Clark’s total employees only reached 20,000, both military and civilians, Manankil told FEF advisory board members Ernest Leung, Bertie Lim, Tony Leviste, and Romulo Neri.
The bulk of the freeport’s employees come from industrial, manufacturing companies, information technology, tourism and services, he said.
The employees include 46,491 for industrial and manufacturing firms, 20,687 for IT companies, 14,537 for tourism firms and 5,292 for service companies.
The visiting FEF fellows were received by Vince Dizon, president and CEO of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), CDC chairman Jose de Jesus, and Manankil.