Cebu prov’l gov’t notes arrival of more investors

While critics of President Rodrigo Duterte hit his war against illegal drugs and its alleged negative impact to the country, Cebu has reportedly recorded a number of investors still coming in to the province.

Benjamin Joseph Yap, head of the Cebu Province Investment and Incentives Center, said more foreign investors are now looking at the province as their top choice for infrastructure, industrial and ecological projects.

He said majority of the investors here are from Asian and European countries and the United States.

"Cebu is performing better than other provinces in the Philippines. We have a lot of investors coming. Nagkadaghan sila," he said.

Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines president, Bo Lundqvist, earlier told The Philippine Star that the rift with EU will hurt the country's economy. He was referring to President Duterte's recent outburst after the European Parliament criticized him for the rising death toll in his war on illegal drugs.

But Yap said the economic performance of the province is doing well with businessmen planning to pour more investments in the province.

The investors, he said, are not so concerned with either the killings or the peace and order in general but more on the costs and local policies and the openness of leaders for investments.

"We haven't received negative reactions from potentials investors in terms of the remarks of the president and his agenda. They are very positive because Cebu is very bright and viable for investment. They are optimistic to invest here and that's good for us," he said.

"They want to make sure their investments will bear fruits. They have not voiced any comments against the pronouncements of Duterte. What they are more concern of is the return of investment," he added.

On the other hand, Yap said they are still looking for more investors for several projects.

"We need investors to keep on growing and we need them to keep coming in because we need jobs and money four our economy," he said.

He said two of the big-ticket projects would be put up in Minglanilla, a progressive town in southern Cebu. One is a 100hectare reclamation project for light industrial park contracted by Ming-Mori Development Corporation, and another is a solar farm proposal from the entire province from Upgrade Energy Philippines (UGEP), a European company based in Belgium that recently partnered with PhilCarbon Inc.

Moreover, the Cebu provincial government is inviting investors to aid the solid waste management problems in the province.

Yap said most of the local government units are still dumping their solid waste in open sites.

In fact, majority of the LGUs in the province are non-compliant with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

The law mandates LGUs to close all open dump sites and replace them with sanitary landfills as a final disposal site for solid and, eventually, residual wastes.

PENRO records show that only six out of 51 component cities and towns of Cebu province operate a sanitary landfill.

Yap said they will cluster the 51 towns and cities for the establishment of sanitary landfills since not all the LGUs have wide land to put up such.

"The more we grow as a province, the more waste are produced. So as our economy grow in the countryside we have to find solutions to the solid waste management problem," he said.

Quintas/ATO