By means of Justine Irish D. Table, Reporter
TECHNOLOGY Dennis Anthony H. Uy will apply this month to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for the development of an information technology (IT) hub, which is expected to become the Silicon Valley of the Philippines.
‘They are ready FSubmit their application to PEZA within one month. That is a big investment,” said PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga Business world in a Viber message.
In May, Mr. Panga announced that Mr. Uy, the CEO of Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions, Inc., proposed developing a Tech City special economic zone (ecozone) on a 117-hectare site between Mexico and Angeles in Pampanga.
Mr Panga said the project aims to create an ecosystem for technology, innovation and technology-related sectors by attracting downstream technology companies.
In a separate interview, Mr. Uy said he estimates the cost of the Tech City project at about $2 billion.
“The whole project, I think, will easily cost $2 billion. It is a very big project,” Mr Uy said in an interview with Business world.
“[The investment] will mainly cover the infrastructure, because you need the buildings, road access and structures, including the information and communications technology [infrastructure]”, he added.
According to the businessman, the master plan for the Tech City has already been handed over to him. This will allow the company to begin land development for the project.
“I think we can start as early as next year… we’ll be able to do the road access, drainage and all these things,” he said.
“We will go out to help all these technology companies… there is a lot of potential in Taiwan, Korea and China, and even in Malaysia,” he added.
Despite being a personal venture, he said Converge will set up a data center and headquarters in the economic zone to meet internal requirements.
“And then hopefully if we can go through with our plans to build up air traffic controller training there,” he added.
The latest data from PEZA shows that there are a total of 427 active ecozones, or ecozones with at least one existing and active PEZA-registered business.
These operational ecozones are home to 4,382 localization companies, PEZA said.