SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—A P60-billion investment project to be implemented by an Australian firm here is expected to turn this premier free port into a global logistics center.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Robert Garcia at a press briefing disclosed other new investment projects approved by the SBMA board of directors.
Garcia said the Asian Institute of Aviation will occupy seven hectares of land near the Subic Bay International Airport and will build hangars and food processing stations for its intermodal logistics business.
Garcia said that AIA will be joined by an Australian firm, which will buy into the company.
“The business model of the company is to export from Australia to China, Japan, and other Asian countries, via airplanes,” he said. “The company will import meat, sea food, and other agricultural products from Australia, bring them by plane or by ship to Subic Bay, process and package these products according to customer orders and then deliver them to customer”‹s”‹.”
Garcia explained that the Australian partner has been handling the processing in Australia, but because it entails a higher labor cost, it “‹has decided to do the processing in Subic.
The operation, the SBMA chairman said, will become intermodal. “They will ship out by air since they have seven jets; they will also ship out via seaport, and their volume for the seaport is 60 containers per month,” he said.
The project will generate 800 jobs, aside from those hired during the construction of facilities, and the company “has also shown interest in providing new equipment for the tower at the Subic airport,” Garcia said.
The new investor also plans to build hangars for maintenance and repair operations that will cater to jets in Hong Kong. “It’s expensive to park jets there. You pay $3,000 just to park it outside without a hangar,” Garcia added.