Malaysia eyes Clark Green City dev’t

MALAYSIA has joined other developed countries in supporting the Philippine infrastructure development program, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said on Monday.

“Strong expressions of funding support for the country’s massive infrastructure build-up from bilateral and multilateral partners Japan, China, South Korea and Malaysia, as well as WB, ADB, and AIIB,” Pernia said in a presentation during a business forum in Makati City on Monday.

Asked particularly about Malaysia, Pernia said the Southeast Asian country is proposing to put up the green city in Clark, Pampanga.

“They are proposing to do the green city, to put institutions there and to organize it. Because they have this experience in Putrajaya,” he said.

Putrajaya is a planned city and the federal administrative center of Malaysia, where the seat of the government was transferred from Kuala Lumpur.

“I don’t know how that is going to be. But I guess they’ll have to make a proposal,” he said.

Clark Green City is a 9,450-hectare former US military facility, was repurposed and envisioned to be the first smart, green and disaster-resilient metropolis in the country.

A project of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), Clark Green City was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board in 2014.

Clark Green City will have some 1.12 million residents, 800,000 workers and contribute a gross output of approximately P1.57 trillion per year to the national economy or roughly 4 percent of the gross domestic product.

Its strategic location in relation to major cities in Central Luzon is connected by the North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway and the soon to be operational Central Luzon Expressway will allow the proposed green metropolis to serve a population of some 12 million.