Aboitiz on Thursday announced several expansion plans which include its West Cebu Estate (WCE) and putting up a data center in Southern Luzon. Aboitiz InfraCapital Economic Estates head Rafael Fernandez de Mesa said on Thursday that at least PHP800 million will be earmarked for this year’s expansion program of the WCE. “Currently, we have a 39-hectare industrial expansion. Construction is ongoing. This year, we’ve earmarked about PHP800 million to develop this,” said de Mesa in a briefing during the 30th anniversary of WCE. De Mesa said the whole expansion plan will generate additional 16,000 jobs. The first phase of the expansion project, which began last year, aims to transform WCE from a primarily shipbuilding hub into a mixed-use development catering to other sectors such as automotive, manufacturing, and logistics. Aboitiz InfraCapital also plans to develop commercial areas within West Cebu Estate, which include a commercial complex housing food outlets, retail shops, basic services, a supermarket, and a transportation hub. Plans for a new central business district are underway, along with the integration of smart technology and sustainability initiatives. “We’re now in the process of pinpointing additional investment that will be pouring in over the next few years to develop a commercial district,” he said. “We have an exciting journey ahead, where West Cebu Estate will evolve into a next-generation, smart, and sustainable Economic Estate,” added de Mesa. The WCE is a 540-hectare industrial-anchored mixed-use economic estate. It hosts diverse arrays of locators, including those in the shipbuilding supply chain integration. WCE also offers future development areas for commercial centers, dormitories, and residential communities. Since 1995, the West Cebu Estate has attracted PHP32 billion in investments from its locators and created 14,000 job opportunities in Balamban, Toledo, and Asturias here in Cebu. Meanwhile, Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. (AIC) president and chief executive officer Cosette V. Canilao said they are eyeing to invest PHP4 billion to put up a data center in Southern Luzon. “For the data centers, we’ve already selected the site and we’re doing our due diligence on the site, ensuring that we can provide the necessary utilities for the data center to operate,” Canilao said. AIC, the infrastructure arm of the Aboitiz group, earlier partnered with US-based EdgeConneX (ECX) to establish a data center platform that will house cloud service providers’ information technology (IT) equipment to help boost the country’s digital infrastructure ecosystem and serve the local market demand. “The plan with the EdgeConneX is to ultimately build a 100 megawatt data center but we are starting with 10 first and then to another site, probably a bigger one. I think for the first site, [investment] is around PHP4 billion,” said Canilao.
Source: Philippines News Agency
