Chiu: New ecozone to ‘transform’ MCIA

The Cebu business community welcomed the declaration of a special economic zone inside the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), saying this presents an opportunity to generate highpaying jobs for Filipinos related to aircraft services.

President Rodrigo Duterte signed a proclamation creating the MacroAsia Cebu Special Economic Zone from two parcels of land with a total area of 50,000 square meters (sq.m.) within the MCIA. Proclamation 590 was signed on Sept. 17, upon the recommendation of the board of directors of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

“This would transform our MCIA into a center maintaining and servicing aircraft,” said Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Antonio Chiu.

The CCCI official also sees the development generating employment for high-paying jobs related to aircraft maintenance.

Moreover, Chiu said that this development is also seen to attract overseas Filipino workers (OFW) to return to Cebu and to work here.

”In fact, we have a lot of OFWs doing this kind of work and this will give them the opportunity to come home to Cebu to be with their families at the same time make use of their skills in main- taining aircraft,” said Chiu.

A special economic zone is defined as an area to be developed into agro-industrial, industrial, tourist or recreational, commercial, banking, investment and financial centers.

These may contain industrial estates, export processing zones, free trade zones and tourist or recreational centers.

The five-hectare property is currently being leased by Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP), a joint venture of MacroAsia Corp. and Lufthansa Technick AG of Germany, for P2.95 million a month, according to a report.

LTP “specializes in base maintenance of Airbus A320 family, A330, A340, and A380.” It also offers release-to-service and daily 24-hour technical support to airlines operating in airport terminals in Cebu, Manila, Clark and Davao.

Other services offered by LTP “include engine and component support, lease-return checks, fleet technical management, engineering services, material management, aircraft painting and personnel assignment.”

MCIAA General Manager Glenn Napuli said LTP can expand its operations in Cebu into a “maintenance, repair and overhaul” of aircraft, for which it can import raw materials, free of tax. /