‘INFRA PROJECTS TO SPUR MINDANAO ECONOMY’

KEY infrastructure projects in Mindanao would help spur economic growth there, Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) said on Tuesday.

Implementing such projects would maximize growth potential and [hasten] economic development not just in the Zamboanga Peninsula, but the entire Mindanao, Alsons Chairman and President Tomas Alcantara said.

“A critical component to sustain economic progress is the availability of a stable, reliable and affordable supply of energy,” he added..

in the Zamboanga Peninsula and Mindanao, we know that we have a major role to play in [boosting] economic growth by investing in the energy sector and building power plants,” the Alsons chief said.

He lauded the $ 380- million (P19.6-billion) loan agreement on the Improving Growth Corridors in Mindanao Road Sector Project that the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed last December.

This loan will fund 11 big-ticket projects to improve road networks in Western Mindanao.

It will also bankroll the construction of approximately 280 kilometers of national, primary, secondary and tertiary roads and bridges in the Zamboang Peninsula and Tawi-Tawi.

They would be implemented between 2018 and 2023.

The peninsula would be region’s contact point in the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines’ (NGCP) planned interconnection project of the Mindanao and Visayas power grids.

These points will be “Cebu in the Visayas and Dipolog City in Mindanao,” Alcantara said.

Alsons is the main electricity supplier of Zamboanga City—the peninsula’s largest city—through its 100-megawatt (MW) Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC) diesel plant.

The company aims to start building the 105-MW San Ramon Power Inc. (SRPI) baseload coalfired power plant in the city’s Talisayan town soon.

The facility is expected to begin operations in 2021.

Alsons also operates the 103MW Mapalad Power Corp. diesel plant in Iligan City; the 55-MW Southern Philippines Power Corp. diesel facility in Alabel, Sarangani; 210-megawatt Sarangani Energy power plant in Maasim, Sarangani.

SEC’s second 105-MW section is and is expected to start operations in 2019.