In less than a month, another locator expressed it's willingness to invest at the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority.
At the simple ceremony of the signing of the investment agreement, early evening Tuesday at Luxent Hotel in Quezon City, APECO president and CEO, Atty. Gil G. Taway IV, said the entry of the third new investor, the APG International Aviation Academy, is a sign that investors saw that the economic zone "is a prime location for growth, best location to build and expand business."
"I want our message to be clear: APECO is primed for growth. My team is ready and able to find the best way to integrate your business into our portfolio. APECO is the best location to build, to grow, and to expand your business and we know that there is a place for any company which shares our vision of a brighter Filipino tomorrow with APECO," Taway said in welcoming officials of APGIAA.
Capt. Arnel Miguel, APGIAA president, on the other hand, said their academy in 1999 established itself as a leading school offering unique, low cost, multidisciplinary programs for success in the international aviation industry and has produced more than 3,000 graduates (mostly foreign students) in the country "who have seen rapid success in their careers."
"Education is APGIAA's lifelong commitment. Our mission an excellent, competitively affordable education for our students using a curriculum that integrated the latest technological innovations with the social skills that would enable them to succeed in an increasingly dynamic and demanding industry. Expanding to the east of the country through APECO will help us reach more Filipinos who dream of becoming a world-class pilot," Miguel explained.
He added that moving to APECO is the academy's way of expanding the flying school business to accommodate more students, foreign or local. The first academy is in Subic Free Port experiencing influx of 1,000 foreign students mostly Indians since 2007.
Chief pilot,Capt. James Villarez, one of the academy instructors told DAILY TRIBUNE that Saudian students are also coming in, as it takes their student four to five months to learn how to fly with their required 45 hours of flying within the course, for only P600,000.
The two-hectares they would be leasing with APECO, Villarez added will surely accommodate more students.
With the new APECO administration coming in, there has been a challenge in attracting investors. Taway welcomed this challenge as it prioritized the revision and update of the APECO Master Plan, which outlines the economic zone's roadmap.
The first two locators who expressed their williness to invest in APECO are the Philippine Aerospace Development Corporation and the Amaris Energy Inc.
APECO is located in Casiguran, Aurora, Quezon province that was established through Republic Act No. 9490, as amended by RA 10083, which planned to be developed into and operated as a decentralized, self-reliant, and self-sustaining industrial, commercial/trading, agro-industrial, tourist, banking, financial, and investment center with suitable residential units as a goverment-owned and -controlled corporation for the purpose of attracting investments, to generate jobs and improve social and economic conditions of the local community.
