Shoemart Inc. of taipan Henry Sy Sr. has secured incentives from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority in exchange for a P714.96-million investment to develop and operate an information technology center in Makati City amid increased demand for office space from the sector.
The proposed building, to be known as SM Makati Cyber Zone 2, is being constructed at Gil Puyat Avenue corner Zodiac and Jupiter Streets in Makati. The company secured the incentives as a developer of an IT center.
This will be the second project of the SM group geared specifically for IT companies. The first SM Cyber Zone project is within the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City. Its locators include Dell and call center firm Teleperformance Inc.
The company’s new investment was among the big-ticket projects approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority during its board meeting on Jan. 9. Another major project is that of Taiwanese firm Tong Hsing Electronics (Philippines) Inc.
The company is infusing additional investments of P520 million to manufacture direct plating copper. Tong Hsing has been a locator at the Carmelray Industrial Park I since 1994.
It is engaged in the manufacture of custom hybrid micro-circuit and optically isolated solid state relays. The company’s new project will generate annual export sales of US$ 6.249 million and create an annual average of 131 direct jobs.
Total investments to date, including this new project, amount to P1.828 billion. Exports sales last year hit US$ 21.48 million with a workforce numbering 897 to date.
In a related development, Peza approved new investments worth P3.665 billion during its Jan. 9 board meeting, 55.32 percent more than the P2.359 billion worth of investments approved in the same period last year.
This year’s new investments represent 32 new projects consisting of 29 ecozone locator enterprise projects and three ecozone developer projects with a total investment of P3.665 billion.
Of the total amount, P2.22 billion is for the new export enterprises and new projects of existing export enterprises, P799.96 million for the construction, development and operation of an information technology center and an agro-industrial economic zone, P518.182 million for new IT enterprises and new projects of existing IT enterprises, P121.664 million for a new facility enterprise, and P5.456 million is for a new ecozone logistics service enterprise.
Projected annual export sales from the 2008 approved export enterprises and IT investments is US$ 212.115 million, 68.91 percent higher than the US$ 65.942-million projected annual export sales from approved investments for the same period last year.