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Monday 28 December 2009

Bataan Free Port expected to provide thousands of jobs

Congressman Albert Garcia of Bataan’s second district sees around 100,000 new jobs generated once the Free Port Area of Bataan (FAB) goes into full operation. The solon authored the FAB Law converting the Bataan Economic Zone (BEZ) here.

He said with the FAB, he expects massive investments pouring in and the generation of tens of thousands of jobs.

“In fact, right after the law was created, a number of investors, including foreigners, have gotten in touch with us and expressed keen interest in investing in FAB, an indication that the newly created free port will become bullish,” the solon said.

“FAB will become a magnet for investors due to the various benefits, such as taxes and other emoluments, not to mention its infrastructures, which will be improved in the coming days.  This means a lot of employment will be created,” Garcia said.

Sectors of transportation, housing, banking, services, among others, will again thrive.

There will be a domino effect in the progress in this town, said the solon.

He added Mariveles will become a bustling industrial center again and thousands of jobs will become available.

Former workers at the economic zone, who were displaced, originated in other provinces that swelled the unemployed population of Mariveles. They can be reemployed at the newly established FAB, Garcia said.

As stated in the law, FAB will have a P2-billion capital outlay to be provided by the national government. The solon said that just in the initial phase of improving facilities at FAB and the setting up of the free port authority, hundred of ?jobs will already be generated.

Garcia said FAB can also be the “last piece of puzzle” in the march for progress of Bataan.

He pointed out that he and Gov. Enrique Garcia have been implementing college scholarships in the province. Launched in 2004, the “Iskolar ng Bataan” has benefited more than 50,000 college scholars in the province.

The congressman said the grad-uates of the “Iskolar ng Bataan” program do not need to go far to find gainful employment as jobs can already be provided at FAB.

It will be recalled that the BEZ, then called the Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ), was the first public economic zone established in the country through Presidential Decree 66 in November 1972.

In the first decade of operation, BEZ boomed, attracting more than a hundred multinational locators and transformed Mariveles into an economic haven and one of the most progressive communities in Luzon.

However, said Garcia, the administrative neglect of the Philippine Export Zone Authority, supervising agency of BEZ and other external factors, stunted the growth of the economic zone.

With dilapidated roads, buildings and other infrastructure, BEZ ceased to attract new investors, and many locators opted to leave.

Garcia said the BEZ has never really achieved its full potential as envisioned when it was established that made him sought its conversion into a free port.

Read more at Business Mirror

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