Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) is eyeing an expansion to aviation-related logistics businesses and other industrial and commercial ventures following the reclassification of Clark Industrial Estate as a global hub of commerce and industry.
President Rodrigo Duterte on June 4 signed Executive Order (EO) No. 81 reclassifying the 290-hectare Clark Industrial Estate 5 (IE5) as an international center of commerce, industry, leisure, and recreation, amending EO No. 716 signed in 2008.
Under EO 716, CIAC was limited to “only engage in aviation, aviation-related services and aviation-related logistic activities (at Clark IE5).”
But under EO 81, CIAC is authorized to enter into lease agreements and similar business arrangements covering IE5 for a broad range of commercial, industrial, leisure and recreation-related services.
For other business activities, prior approval from the Department of Transportation and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority will be needed.
“This is definitely a marching order in the right direction and will surely be a boon to regional development especially in the greater Clark area, and Central and Northern Luzon,” CIAC president Jaime Melo said in a statement.
“With the new EO, CIAC shall now focus its efforts [on] aggressively expanding aviation-relation logistics businesses and other industrial and commercial ventures inside Clark, towards making Clark a globally competitive industrial and commercial hub in the Asia-Pacific Region,” Melo added.
This development will also further boost economic activities in time for the completion of Clark’s new passenger terminal building next year, he further declared.
EO 81 states that the reclassification is vital to developing the entire Clark area as a globally competitive international commercial center in the Asia-Pacific region.
It adds that the Clark Special Economic Zone and the Clark Freeport Zone, including the IE5, have already attracted international attention and interest as the Asia-Pacific region’s emerging premiere hub for aviation and international logistics, as well as an international center for commerce, industry, leisure and recreation.
