SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Hermosa Municipal Mayor Jopet Inton on Friday joined Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma Eisma in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing with a Chinese firm for the development of a Techno-Industrial Zone.
In an exclusive interview with this reporter yesterday, Mayor Inton said the techno-industrial zone park will be built by China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC) at the Expanded Area of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
“This will generate thousands of employment opportunities for our local communities and will generate greater economic activities,” Mayor Inton said.
The Subic Special Economic and Freeport Zone before consists only of the city of Olongapo and the municipality of Subic in Zambales, the lands occupied by the former US Naval Base and its contiguous extensions within the territorial jurisdiction of the municipalities of Morong and Hermosa in Bataan.
In view of this limitation, then-President now House Speaker, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order 675 in November 2007, thus authorizing the SBMA to declare areas outside the former US Naval Base as “additional secured areas” that may be operated as special economic and freeport zone under its supervision.
CHMC Chairman and President Xiao Ping and Vice President Zhang Fei joined Mayor Inton and Chairman Eisma in a simple MOA signing ceremony held at the SBMA Administration Building Board Room.
SBMA PDO Manager Vicente Evidente Jr. witnessed the MOA signing.
Established in 1980 as a subordinate to China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH), China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC) contracts engineering projects and provides trade service, capital operation and technical solutions, including metallurgy, mines, transportation, building materials, power, hydraulics, environmental protection, chemistry, agricultural products storage and processing, etc.
Certified by China’s Ministry of Commerce as international project contractor and A-level equipment supervisor, CHMC sets up normative safety management system on project quality, environmental protection and vocational health, all with authentication by ISO19001, ISO14001 and OHSSAS18001. CHMC has offices in 12 countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Tajikistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya and Guinea.
Photos: John Michael Mendoza of LGU-Hermosa