DHL eyeing airport ecozone in Philippines
Global logistics company DHL wants the government to declare part of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) as a special economic zone where businesses will be entitled to various incentives, a reliable source said over the weekend.
DHL Worldwide Express (Philippines), Inc. aims to convert a property close to the airport into an ecozone but “it is not big enough to qualify” under Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) rules, the source said.
Because of this, authorities are considering various options, first of which is to combine an airport lot owned by the Manila International Airport Administration or MIAA and the DHL property.
Officials of both the MIAA and DHL were not immediately available for comment.
The combined property will then be annexed to an existing private ecozone near the airport, MacroAsia Ecozone, which covers 22.69 hectares at Nichols Field, the source said.
The new special ecozone will cover more than 60 hectares, the source added.
To “relieve” the MIAA of the costs involved in developing the property, member-developers of the private sector-led Philippine Industrial Estates Association or PHILEA are being eyed to undertake the development.
“The MIAA property is undeveloped but it is believed to be of a flat grade” capable of hosting logistics operations, the source said.
The source, however, noted that the DHL property and MacroAsia Ecozone are not contiguous, and “it is being figured out to connect the DHL lot with the MacroAsia lot.”
DHL does not want to waste its recent investment on its logistics handling facility, the source added. DHL last year launched its DHL Gateway Facility at NAIA.
The source also said the jewelry industry has expressed interest in locating in an ecozone close to the airport for stone-setting operations.
MacroAsia Ecozone, operated by MacroAsia Properties Development Corp., already has one locator – Lufthansa Technik Phils., Inc. – a 51% German- owned firm engaged in aircraft maintenance and repair.
The source said the model used in designating information technology buildings as ecozones is also being explored for the airport proposal.
