THE Clark Development Corporation (CDC), under the stewardship of Noel Manankil, President and CEO (chief executive officer), is deeply engrossed on projects aimed at promoting linkages with the communities adjacent to it.
Under the banner of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, it has generated interest from, and participation of, private firms under the public-private partnership scheme of the government.
Its mantra is build, build, build and it has embarked on pushing through the menu of projects expected to be completed within the decade. It has laid down a roadmap of the overall development of Clark and, by extension, the cities of Angeles and Mabalacat, Porac, Capas and Bamban in the north. Its Clark Green City will traverse a bigger portion of lapses and, already, road networks have been completed to usher in honest-to-goodness development of the massive area.
Mabalacat City, which for the longest time has enjoyed parallel development with the state-run firm, stands to benefit most in the development plans and programs in terms of additional Gross Income Earned (GIE) and employment opportunities for its citizens.
The National Government has also a massive infrastructure program to go abreast with its Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbors which it had hosted weeks ago at Asean Summit 50, of which the Philippine president is this year's chairman.
President Duterte has embarked on state visits to announce his Build, Build, Build program internationally and seek investors' patronage for it. The program reportedly needs some P8 trillion in infrastructure spending, mainly to be sourced from the national budget and partly from foreign investors.
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The infrastructure program is complementary with the Asean's connectivity masterplan for the next eight years.
Connectivity connotes infrastructure and logistics connectivity throughout the Asean region.
True enough, the Roll-on, Roll-out (Ro-Ro) route from Davao-General Santos to Bitung in Indonesia has been inaugurated recently to jumpstart infrastructure connectivity.
More plans are afoot regarding similar projects, especially in Mindanao which badly needs logistics, trade and infrastructure to fully develop it. After all, the sitting president comes from this area.
