SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority reported a steady growth in income and a strong performance in key financial operations last year, as it set into motion a more aggressive program in investment generation, project expansion and job creation.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said in her State of the Freeport Address that the Subic agency recorded a 34-percent increase in net income last year, which grew to more than P91 million compared to P68 million in 2016.
SBMA posted total revenue of P3.08 billion in 2017, compared to P2.95 billion in 2016, for a positive variance of 4 percent; and showed an increase of 8 percent in operating income, which rose from P1.44 billion in 2016 to P1.55 billion in 2017.
At the same time, the agency’s cash and investments grew by 4 percent to P4.43 billion, compared to P4.24 billion in 2016, while total debt went down by 5 percent from P6.55 billion in 2016 to P6.2 billion last year.
“These are indicators of robust financial health,” Eisma said, as she went on to cite similar accomplishments in employment, revenue sources, and contributions to the national economy. “If this is not success, then I don’t know what it is,” she added.
Eisma explained that despite a downturn in committed investments, the SBMA managed to win over 239 new investors last year, compared to just 144 in 2016, for a 66 percent increase. Thus, while committed investments went down to P2.54 billion in 2017 from P6.35 billion in 2016, projected employment still grew to 3,488 from 3,868 in 2016, or just a slight dip of less than 10 percent.
The SBMA chief likewise pointed out that Subic was a runaway winner last year in terms of project expansion by existing business locators with 63 expansion projects put up, compared to 37 in 2016. These expansions gave Subic an additional P1.09 billion in committed investments, which translated to a huge 203 percent increase over the P36 million recorded in 2016.
Overall, Eisma said the SBMA earned a total of P3.08 billion in revenues from seven sources: leases, which yielded P1.52 billion; port services, P961 million; regulatory fees, P338 million; common use service area (CUSA) fees, P103 million; tourism, P16 million; environmental and tourism admission fee (ETAF), P10, million; and other revenue sources, P126 million.
The Subic agency was just as successful in its major thrust of job creation, as it facilitated the entry of 15,500 workers into Subic’s active workforce last year, thus increasing the manpower count here by 14 percent, or from 112,600 workers in 2016 to 128,100 in 2017.
The Subic workforce is now comprised of 70,650 workers in the services sector; 33, 593 in shipbuilding; 15,303 in manufacturing; and 8,621 in construction.
Meanwhile, the SBMA provided the national economy with a total of P19.6 billion in various contributions, an amount that was 14 percent higher than the total contributions in 2016.
These included P16.8 billion in cash collections by the Bureau of Customs, which increased by 11 percent over the 2016 figures; P2.2 billion in taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, an increase of .8 percent; P92 billion in dividends, or a whopping increase of 533 percent; and P.3 billion in shares to local government units, or an 18 percent increase.
With the increasing number of ship calls, the SBMA recorded total port revenue of P1.2 billion, which represented a 6 percent increase over the P1.13-billion record in 2016.
The Port of Subic also reported $2.3 billion in total export trade value and $1.7 billion in import trade value last year, an increase of 38 percent and 11 percent, respectively, over 2016 figures.