The country’s economic czar has expressed support to a proposal to build the Greater Manila Bay Area that could be developed alongside the Luzon Economic Corridor.
“The rail that’s being considered (in the Luzon Economic Corridor) traverses exactly the Greater Manila Bay Area. So (the Greater Manila Bay Area) is an idea…it’s something that can be looked (at) a little deeper,” Secretary Frederick Go, special assistant to the President for investment and economic affairs, told reporters in an industry event last week.
Go said the prime movers of the plan are to meet within two to three months to discuss the proposal, first brought up at the Manila Forum by Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian.
The idea took its roots from the dialogue between Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and and the Hong Kong Macau Business Association.
The meeting, Go said, will determine what steps can be taken to develop the project.
He said a project as huge as this needs to have a feasibility study and a masterplan for actual implementation.
The Greater Manila Bay Area follows the model of China’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area covering , Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and Guangzhou to attract more investments and advanced technologies to the Philippines.
This will link up Bataan and Cavite with new infrastructure and create economic opportunities in the areas in between, including Greater Manila and Bulacan.
The Luzon Economic Corridor, a project backed by the United States and Japan, aims to develop Clark, Subic, Manila and Batangas with high-impact infrastructure projects, including rail, port modernization, agribusiness, and clean energy and semiconductor supply chains and deployments.
