October 8, 2007 | 12:00am
CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga — Clark Development Corp. (CDC) disclosed that investments at the 4,500-hectare freeport have reached P25.32 billion, an increase of P2 billion from eight months ago.
In his speech during the first Clark tourism summit, CDC vice president Ernesto Gorospe said over the past eight months, 44 new firms have signed agreements with the state firm to locate at the former US military airbase.
“Our latest figures indicate that the CDC had lease agreements with 695 firms. About 390 of them are now fully operational,” Gorospe said.
He said the companies who had signed agreements are expected to employ about 3,000 workers in their first year of operations. This would boost the current employment of 51,089 workers at the freeport.
Gorospe cited in particular the $1-billion committed investment of US electronics giant Texas Instrument Inc., which is expected to employ more than 6,000 workers when it is fully operational.
He attributed Clark’s attractiveness to investors partly to tourism development. “The increase in the number of commercial and passenger flights at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport contributed also in the investment performance of the economic zone.”
Gorospe said the CDC is now formulating tourism development strategies to serve as an “ anchor for the growing tourism industry in Clark” as he noted that the Department of Tourism has identified Clark as a major tourist destination under its developmental plan up to 2010.
“Clark tourism creates vital peripheral and socio-economic benefits arising from income generated from the tourist expenditures,” he said, as he also noted the growing perception that the Clark airport is being groomed as the country’s future international gateway.
