DAVAO CITY — SM Prime Holdings, Inc. plans to bring its Science Discovery Center to its existing mall in Jinjiang, China next year, a company official said in a recent interview here.

This will be the third SM Science Discovery Center and the first outside the Philippines, said Arturo C. Carballo, Science Discovery Center project head. The Science Discovery Center in China will open at the mall in Jinjiang City, Fujian province, he added.

SM Prime has five malls in China located in Xiamen, Jinjiang, Chengdu, Suzhou, and Chongqing.

The company plans to open a branch in Zibo in Shandong next year as part of continuing expansion of the country’s largest shopping mall developer and operator.

The first Science Discovery Center opened at SM Mall of Asia in Manila in 2006 while the second center opened here on Oct. 1.

“This is one of the most modern science centers with a planetarium powered by the Digistar 5 projector system; the full-domed planetarium alone costs P700,000,” Mr. Carballo said.

The Science Discovery Center here takes up a 2,000-square-meter space. Compared with the 158 seating capacity of Mall of Asia’s planetarium in Pasay City, the Davao mall’s planetarium can seat only up to 80 people. “The Science Discovery Center in Davao is expected to cater not only to Dabawenyos but also to the whole of Mindanao,” Mr. Carballo said.

LOWER FEE MULLED

He added that the Davao Science Discovery Center here charges an entrance fee of P250, compared to P330 at the facility in Mall of Asia. 

Mr. Carballo said his group has met with Vice-Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte and officials of the Department of Education on the possibility of reducing the rate for public school students.

He noted that Pasay City exempted the center at the Mall of Asia from the amusement tax, so the facility there was able to charge such pupils a lower fee of P180. “We are trying to get a much lower rate for Davao public school students,” he added.

Shares of SM Prime shed two centavos or 0.12% to close P16.32 apiece on Friday last week from P16.34 each on Thursday. — C. A. Carillo