Aussie firm to build $6-million educational facility in Clark

MANILA, Philippines - Australian International Training and Management Group Pty Ltd will put up a $6 million educational facility in Clark Freeport Zone, the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) announced.

CDC and the Australian firm has signed a lease agreement for the establishment of an educational facility, dubbed Clark Education City , inside the Clark Expo.

Ricafort said the facility will offer vocational courses with Australian certification in the fields of hotel and restaurant management, plumbing, refrigeration and air-conditioning, electrical, auto-mechanical and construction.

The CDC president added that the courses will be offered to foreign students from Korea, India, Nepal, China, Taiwan, and other surrounding countries. Ricafort said the construction work for project is expected to be completed by next year.

Earlier Ricafort said that a total of P4 billion worth of new investment is expected to come in the Clark Freeport zone after the government lifted the building height restriction in the former United States military instillation.

Ricafort said the issue on height clearance permits inside the Freeport has been pending since 2007. He said that in March this year a team of experts from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conducted an aerodrome survey of the Clark airport.

He said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has approved 32 building and expansion applications filed by various locators. CAAP, formerly the Air Transportation Office, is a government agency mandated to keep aviation complexes safe from structural obstructions.

Ricafort said the CDC and CAAP signed a board-approved memorandum of agreement for the following: CAAP will draft an operational guideline to ensure an acceptable procedure and time frame for future applications, and for the conduct of the obstacle limitation surface (OLS) so that indicative height limitation values can be determined for every area in Clark .

“Resolution of the height restriction issue is important to ensure the continued economic development in Clark,” Ricafort said.