Clark freeport posts 352% increase in investments

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – Clark Development Corp. (CDC) president and chief executive officer Benigno Ricafort has reported the biggest investment, employment, and export figures in the history of this Freeport, with 351.6 percent increase in investments committed in 2010.

In a report to the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC), Ricafort noted that the CDC signed in 2010 a total of 77 new projects, 10 project expansions, and 81 project renewals, covering a total of 168 projects.

Ricafort also reported a 51-percent increase of exports by Clark-based investors, or from $890.9 million in 2009 to $1.3 billion in 2010.

“The total investment commitments last year amounted to P26.5 billion which is a 351.6 percent increase over the P5.8 billion commitments made in 2009,” Ricafort told the MCAC. The MCAC is composed of mayors of towns around Clark, as well as officers of investors’ groups in this freeport.

Ricafort also reported a 99.4-percent increase in the employment creation commitment of investors, or from 2,798 new jobs committed in 2009 to 5,581 jobs committed in 2010.

He said that Clark now hosts 60,120 employees which, he noted, is now more than double the average 24,000 Filipinos employed by the Americans here before they abandoned this former US Air Force base in 1991.

“It’s also a 3.6 percent increase in employment from 58,023 workers in 2009 to 60,120 last year,” he said.