| Gov.
Malanyaon, GMA witness signing of $200M investment for Davao
Oriental
 |
President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Trade and Industry Sec. Peter
Favila, and representatives of the Spanish Confederation
of Business Organizations (CEOE) witness the signing
of the strategic agreement between GMC and GFC. Seated
from left to right: Joaquín Rodriguez, Chairman
of GMC and José Luis del Val Cob, President of
Green Fuel Corporación, S.A. Standing from left
to right: Jacinto Monge, COO of Green Fuel; Shane Mulcahy,
President and CEO of GMC; Senator Miguel Zubiri; Juan
Sancho Rof, Vice-President of the Board of TÉCNICAS
REUNIDAS INTERNACIONAL, S.A., shareholder of Green Fuel;
Governor Corazon Nuñez-Malanyaon; Martin Supancic,
International Corporate Development Manager.
|
Davao
Oriental Governor Corazon Malanyaon and President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo who have just arrived in the country from a week-long
state visit in Spain witnessed the signing of a joint venture
investment worth at least $200 million for the province of
Davao Oriental. Philippine-based company Guidance Management
Corporation (GMC) signed an agreement with the Spain-based
firm Green Fuel Corporation for a joint venture that will
undertake several bio-fuel projects in Davao Oriental.
The
agreement was signed at a business meeting on December 4,
2007 in Spain’s capital, Madrid. The signing was witnessed
by President Arroyo, Gov. Malanyaon, Trade and Industry Secretary
Peter Favila, Senator Miguel Zubiri, who authored the the
Philippine Biofuels Act, and top officials of the Spanish
Confederation of Business Organizations.
The
project’s investment in its initial phase is estimated
at $150 million which will be allocated to planting of at
least 60,000 hectares of palm in Davao Oriental, creating
jobs for some 10,000 families in the province.
Green
Fuel Corporation is a biodiesel company whose shareholders
include Spanish utility Endesa and Tecnicas Reunidas, one
of the world’s largest general contractors. The unprecedented
and historic link-up between a European and Philippine companies
is by far the most comprehensive joint venture agreement signed
to date for the Philippine biodiesel industry as the joint
venture will develop the entire value chain, encompassing
the procurement of feedstock, oil crushing, extraction and
refining as well as the production of biodiesel.
The
Chairman of GMC, Jack Rodríguez, defined the relations
with GFC, as “strategic for the joint development of
vertically integrated biodiesel projects in the Philippines”.
President Arroyo has pledged her full support for the joint
venture, while Senator Zubiri and Governor Malanyaon have
underlined their commitment to facilitating the development
of this milestone biodiesel project. For his part, the President
of GFC, José Luis del Val, have stated that “The
presence in the Philippines, apart from expanding the raw
material base required for our projects, opens up the path
to a region, Asia, with enormous economic growth potential
and where more than half of the world’s population live,
from a country (the Philippines) historically rooted with
Spain.”
As
part of the agreement, both companies have constituted a joint
venture that is open to the incorporation of other local partners
from the fuel distribution sector as well as companies that
can add value to the biodiesel production chain with the objective
of securing raw materials (coconut, palm and jatropha oils)
via mass cultivation of oleaginous plants, the construction
of an oil crushing, extraction and refining unit with an annual
vegetable oil processing capacity of 200,000 tons and a biodiesel
plant with a production capacity of 110,000 tons per year.
This will be followed by the gradual expansion of the company
to other countries in Southeast Asia.
The
initial steps of the project are directed towards the extraction
of coconut oil of which there are plenty in Davao Oriental
and the planting of a high-yielding variety of oil palm for
feedstock and to be followed by the sowing of jatropha once
its economic viability and availability in sufficiently large
quantities can be guaranteed.
The
project’s investment in its initial phase is estimated
at US$ 150 million, which will be allocated to planting 60,000
hectares of oil palm on ancestral and public lands in Davao
Oriental, creating jobs for some 10,000 families of indigenous
people.
Davao
Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon said that she was “grateful
no end” to President Arroyo for her “all-out support”
to their efforts to sell the province’s investment and
tourism sites to the world market. She also said that another
“big amount of investment” is set to be poured
in the province by investors from China who have planned to
put up a fish processing plant in Davao Oriental.
However,
top officials of the local government here are jubilant upon
hearing the news of a big biofuel investment in Davao Oriental.
“Good news for the people of Davao Oriental!,”
says the mayor of the City of Mati, Michelle Nakpil Rabat.
Davao Oriental Second District Rep. Thelma Almario said many
people in the province will finally get “much needed”
employment with the entry of a big biofuel investor here as
majority of the people here are heavily dependent on the ailing
coconut industry.
ABOUT
GREEN FUEL:
Green
Fuel Corporación, which counts as shareholders Spanish
multinationals Endesa, Técnicas Reunicas, Tepro Consultores
and Asturian engineering group TSK, is leading the development
of the biodiesel sector in Spain through a vertical integration
model, and aspires to convert itself in the global reference
in the sector, through the signing of agreements in raw material-producing
countries, such as the Philippines, Argentina, Bulgaria or
Rumania, among others. The company has initiated a strategic
development plan, which will culminate in the construction
of 6 biodiesel plants in Spain: Extremadura (already in construction),
Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla y León, Castilla La Mancha
and Catalonia. Its investment program totals some 350 million
Euros distributed among Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe, South
America and Southeast Asia.
ABOUT
GUIDANCE MANAGEMENT:
Guidance
Management Corporation (GMC) is a Philippine conglomerate
with interests in the mining, agriculture, and energy sectors,
among others. Its entry into the Philippine biodiesel industry
follows the opportunities detected by the company and which
it plans to jointly develop with Green Fuel. (Ferdinand Zuasola,
Davao Oriental Information Office)
 |
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Gov.
Malanyaon, GMA witness signing of $200M investment
for Davao Oriental |
|
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