Clark Ecozone employment to reach 76,000 in five years

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has announced that employment is expected to soar to about 76,000 at the Clark special economic zone in the next five years after it signed new business agreements with 32 more firms.

"Clark now hosts about 413 business enterprises whose investments total about P77.75 billion in the next five years," the CDC said yesterday. The old and new firms are expected to open more jobs and boost employment here from about 27,000 to 76,000 in the next five years.

The employment figure is much more than the 24,000 Filipinos employed by the US military base here in 1991.

Of the 32 new investments , CDC public relations department chief Sonny Lopez particularly cited the takeover of the mothballed Tru North Gold and Country Club by the US firm BAC Nevada, which will develop a world-class golf course, housing, leisure parks, convention centers, and a world-class resort.

The CDC also signed recently an agreement with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) to promote industrial peace and "to elevate the standard of employment inside the Clark special economic zone."

CDC president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Angeles said that the CDC and NCMB will also "provide immediate conciliation services to facilitate the amicable settlement of labor disputes" and "undertake training and orientation activities for employers and workers on voluntary modes of labor dispute prevention and settlement while the labor body will also provide assistance in terms of trainings, seminar modules and designs, resource persons and other technical support."

"These measures," Angeles said, "will promote industrial peace at Clark and thereby attract more investors."