MUTYA NG DABAW 2012 – Davao City Ambassadress of Goodwill

DABAW BEAUTIES. Mutya ng Dabaw 2012 Marriane Mae Te and her Court put their beauties to good use as the city’s Ambassadress of Goodwill and assisting tourism and investment officer Jayson Magnaye in the city’s tourism and investment promotions. MORIE AGUILAR

 

 

Davao trade mission to Singapore in July

    Davao City is sending a team to Singapore in July to sell the city and lure foreign workers’ investments.
    The mission would also discuss resumption of direct flights by Singaporean flag carrier Tiger Airways, which had stopped for lack of traffic volume.

    The trade mission would also sell the city as an excellent investment area for information and communications technology industry and property development, said Jason C. Magnaye, chief of the Davao City Investment and Tourism Promotions Center and the City Tourism Operations Office.
    Davao City has been chosen by the Singapore Tourism Board as among tourist destinations in the Southeast Asian region to be visited by  Singaporeans. In a recent mission here, officers of the board proposed trade and tourism exchanges between the island state and the city.

Mining company invests US$70M in Pantukan project

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

 A Canadian mining firm has pumped about $70 million into a mining copper-gold venture in Kingking, Pantukan, Compostela Valley, said its local partner Nationwide Development Corp. (Nadecor).  
    St. Augustine Copper and Gold, listed in the  Toronto Stock Exchange,  counts among its projects mining ventures in Nchanga in Zambia and Mount Hope and Liberty in the US.
    Nadecor has already submitted its feasibility study for project to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), said Conrado T. Calalang, Nadecor chairman.
    “We are delighted and pleased with the successful completion of this major milestone, which will enable us, together with our partners St. Augustine, to accelerate the development of this flagship mining project, which will bring many benefits to the Philippines, particularly the Pantukan community and Compostela Valley,” said Calalang.
    DENR and MGB would still be evaluating the study.
    The project needs another study—the bankable feasibility study–before it can start construction of infrastructures.
    “We are very pleased with the support we have been receiving from all the government agencies, the community and the stakeholders in this project,” said Calalang.

US, Indian BPOs locating in Davao City

    Four large multinational Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) companies from the United States and India would be establishing branches in Davao City, said Bert Barriga, vice president of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Davao.
He said talks are ongoing between ICT-Davao and the investors who are behind the “biggest call centers in the world.”
The new entries in the BPO-IT industry in Davao would add up to about 18 large and small BPOs now operating in the city.
Barriga said the US and India being lured to the city could be an offshoot of its being tagged as a top location for BPOs in Asia.
The BPO industry in the city has been growing since two years ago after it was identified by international BPO players as belonging to the next wave of Asian cities for BPOs.

Davao City leads start of BIMP-EAGA revival

Special Report

BY ROGER BALANZA
Davao City is playing savior to an ambitious multi-country project launched in 1992 that aimed to position the Asean Region as a subregional economic power that should matter in world economy.
The Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP EAGA) has been in the doldrums since its launch ten years ago in Davao City during the term of then President Fidel Ramos.
The grand launch was attended by ministers of the member countries in what is then the biggest economic story of the region trying to catch world attention to its potentials as an economic player.

President Ramos–behind the BIMP-EAGA concept— and then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (now the vice mayor) represented the Philippines in the historic event.
BIMP-EAGA was a crucial element to Davao City’s march to progress. Mindanao’s premier city had been chosen for the launch, and as the Philippine hub of the subregional economic grouping. The city hosted several ministerial meetings prior to the launch that establiished foundations for the concept.

Optimism over BIMP-EAGA as a vehicle for economic cooperation, however, nosedived as the Asian economic flu swept the region in the mid-90s and as Ramos left the presidency.
The financial crunch that shook member-countries’ economies sent the BIMP-EAGA concept to temporary coma.
Ministerial meetings have since been made since three years ago as BIMP-EAGA leaders pick up the shattered pieces with aim to revive the economic pact concept of Ramos, a strong advocate of Asean economic cooperation as a vehicle for regional peace and progress.
BIMP-EAGA is making slow strides to get itself out of the doldrums, starting with strengthening of air links for stronger trade and tourism ties before it spreads its wings to sell itself to the world.
Davao City this week hosted one such endeavor.
The two-day BIMP-EAGA First Equator Asia Air Access forum, Airline CEOs Summit in Davao City held on April 18-19, 2012, brought together senior leaders of the member countries, airport authorities, airlines, and the tourism industry in order to develop more access and manage relationships with gateways and destinations in the region.
Equator Asia is the BIMP-EAGA’s tourism brand.
The 1st Equator Asia Air Access Forum discussed the different countries’ presentations on international gateways in BIMP-EAGA, the market outlook and business prospects of airline companies in the region, and the promotion and marketing of BIMP-EAGA priority destinations and routes.

‘Water taxis’ to start serving Davao City-Igacos route

PHOTO BY MORIE AGUILAR

BY JOANNA C. BALANZA

Two units of high-speed water axis will start ferrying passengers to and from Samal Island after the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) would have approved the franchise to operate of Davao Express Water Taxi Inc.
Company manager Jheannie Lava Callao, said the water taxis would sail off from Sta. Ana Wharf, Sasa Wharf, Lanang and Water Insular Hotel to any point in the Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos).
“Hopefully, we will be operational next week,” Callao said.
If the passenger load is good, we will be adding three more units, said Callao of the taxis that run on maximum speedof 22 miles per hour. The company has invested P10 million into the venture, the first of its kind in the country and considered as “pioneering investment” by the Board of Investments.

Lapanday 200-hectare ‘mini-city’ to rise in Davao City

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Lapanday Properties Philippines, Inc. (LPPI) of the Lorenzos is transforming its former 200-hectare banana plantation here into a master-planned large-scale integrated mixed-use township development.
Lapanday presented in a press conference here recently the project dubbed Ciudades, an ambitious project that would build  what could be a mini-city in Mandug, about 20 hectares from downtown.

Marcelino Roldan Manalili, president of Ingenue Property Concepts and Marketing Corp., marketing arm of LPPI, said Ciudades is a ‘signature project’ never been before in Davao City.
We expect Ciudades to change the real estate landscape in the city, he said.
Manalili said Ciudades would answer the city’s needs in business, commercial, leisure, residential, and institutional expansion requirements.
First phase of the project is the ongoing development of housing communities such as Las Palmas Verdes, Nizanta Homes and soon to be launched Altea Homes. After the launching of the residential component, Ciudanes will go into its second phase, which is the development of the 20-hectare First Mindanao Business and Industrial Park (FMBIP). This component is set to develop Davao City as a premier business and industrial hub, Manalili said.
Ingenue Property marketing director Maria Angela Zalazar said FMBIP was earmarked as a Business-Industrial-Residential-Estate (BIRE).

dAVAO City lands in New7Wonder Cities list

NO. 99, March 12-18, 2012

 

 

 

75TH ARAW NG DABAW

SPECIAL ISSUE

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

      Davao City’s fame is going worldwide landing among top cities in an international contest organized by the  New7Wonder Cities.
In a latest website post,  New7Wonder Cities ranked the city third out of 44 chosen urban centers within Southeast Asia and Oceania. About 300 urban centers and cities qualified for the search for thé world’s new ‘wonder cities.’
The search still on its nomination stage is carried out through internet global voting. The final list would be determined by December.
Vigan City currently sits the number one spot in Southeast Asian and Oceania group of urban centers, followed by Cebu City. At least seven urban centers based in the country made it to the top 10 wonder cities within Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Davao City building boom a race to heaven

75th ARAW NG DABAW

SPECIAL ISSUE

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

    Davao City’s skyline will be undergoing  drastic changes with proposed high-rise buildings shooting up to the sky in what is seen as a physical testamanent that reinforces the city’s image as an investors’ haven and the premier metropolis in Mindanao.
Mindanao’s tallest building—a 34-storey edifice—would start rising next year in the business district in Bajada, one of several proposed by investors.
A businessman involved in construction aptly and poetically summed up the high-rise building boom following reports of the city’s tallest buildin to be built in Bajada, the city’s fastest growing business district, at the Abreeza-Ayala Mall complex.
There is now a race to heaven. Investors are competing with each other to build the tallest building, said the businessman.
Vice mayor Rodrigo Duterte himself is mystified at the construction boom, as new buildings frenetically sprout up in almost every corner of the city, wondering if the projects—many of which are condominiums– would sell.
At the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN on Sunday, Duterte himself provided an answer to the riddle.
He said he asked around and a source in the housing development sector told him that housing and property development are the best areas to invest in the city.
They said we have a fastly growing middle-income sector that can afford to buy, said Duterte.
The city’s business atmosphere has been electrified not only by Filipino investors but also by foreigners—Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Malaysians, among others—who poured investments in various ventures.
The local buying power getting more muscles to lure investors aside, Davao City has been happily drowning from an exodus of new investments in recent years.
The Davao City Investment Promotions Center (DCIPC), tasked with the city’s investment generation drive, reported that last year investors poured nearly P4 billion in business expansions and new investments mostly in property development and housing.
Joining the melee are the country’s top housing developers which came ahead of the current boom, barging into high-end housing that transformed the city’s outskirts into expensive gated communities.
Mixed-use property development projects followed to respond to a surge of investors looking for space—topped by the P2.9 billion Abreeza mall project of the Ayala Land and the Floirendo Group of Companies in J. P. Laurel Avenue in Bajada,
Four other multi-million peso mall projects are in the pipeline adding to the existing seven malls.
DCIPC-predicted investment figures for 2011—targeted at double the 2010 figure– have gone loco, with the coming of the multi-million dollar AboitizPower coal-fired power plant in Toril district, the single biggest investment today.
From single-unit housing and property development, the investment focus has shifted to skyscrapers: Three buildings above ten srories are in the drawing board that the unnamed businessman said are leading “the race to heaven.”
Mindanao’s tallest building,  the 34-storey Aeon Towers—a 600-room luxury condominium-hotel-business skyscraper– is rising soon in the city. Construction starts next year, with completion set in early 2016.
Two other high-risers are also in the planning stage—-a 20-storey building in Ecoland in Matina Aplaya and a 12-storey building also in Bajada.
The new skyscrapers would dwarf present holders of the tall-building crowns—the 18-storey Marco Polo Hotel along C. M. Recto, the 17-storey Landco-PDCP Corporate Center in J. P. Laurel Avenue in Bajada and the 14-storey Pryce Tower also on J. P. Laurel Avenue.

DAVAO CITY INVESTORS TOLD TO HELP RELOCATE INFORMAL SETTLERS

Lawyers, court warned against
demolition without relocation

Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has warned the court and lawyers of land properties against demolition of urban poor without relocation for the displaced families.
Unless you are inviting a bloodbath, you should go to the process before demolition, he said at the Ato ni Bay television program on SkyCable hosted by broadcast journalist Leo Villareal.
He said to avoid people being displaced, investors should add up funds on corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their investments to buy resettlement areas for the displaced.
Unless you are ready to go into a bloodbath, you should provide relocation, he said.
The no demolition without relocation is mandated by the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) and the Davao City Comprehensive Shelter program authored by councilorArnolfo Cabling.
Mayor Sara Duterte figured in a controversy last year after she punched a court sheriff supervising a court-ordered demolition of urban poor shanties in Agdao district. The act, widely played up in national and television news media, earned for her charges at the Ombudsman, interior department and the Supreme Court.

The vice mayor’s warning was in reiteration of the his earlier statement that investors should share in helping resolve dislocation of informal settlers who shall be evicted from land where their businesses are to be located.
I am asking the investors to provide a budget in their investment plan for relocation of the informal settlers.
Many businesses here are put on hold due to illegal occupants on their proposed factory or plant site or subdivision projects.
Relocating the informal settlers–ordered evicted by the court—takes a heavy toll on local finances—even as the local government has resettlement areas for displaced urban poor.
Duterte said investors could assist the city government in confronting the problem of providing relocation sites for the illegal settlers by adding funds in their investment plan for the purpose.
Davao City has an active Urban Land Reform Program that provides relocation sites for displaced informal settlers who are resettled in new homesites on city-owned land at the outskirts of the city proper.
Duterte’s advice came as investors—mostly in property development and housing projects—gobble up lands for multi-million investments.
The projects suffer a bitch when the proposed project sites are occupied by informal settlers that needed to be relocated. ROGER M. BALANZA