The Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO) and InfiniVAN Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), boosting the digital infrastructure in the Casiguran ecozone.

According to APECO president and chief executive officer Atty. Gil G. Taway IV, the signing is part of APECO’s thrust to position the ecozone as a viable hub for data centers, also seen to increase the demand for energy requirements and build on APECO’s developing clean energy portfolio.

Taway and InfiniVAN president Shigeki Nakahara led the signing ceremony, witnessed by the Japanese Embassy’s Economic Affairs Minister Naobumi Yokota.

The MoU aims to explore the establishment of a terrestrial (overland) connection inside APECO in Casiguran, Aurora, connecting the ecozone with the landed and soon-to-be landed international submarine cable capacities in Baler, Aurora, as well as subsea cable capacities in Claveria, Cagayan, and elsewhere in emerging Northern Luzon submarine cable landing corridors.

InfiniVAN is the fully-licensed Philippine telco subsidiary of Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Japanese telco IPS Inc.

Although with barely a decade of operating experience in the Philippine broadband industry, InfiniVAN has emerged as a real powerhouse in providing robust and resilient connectivity to internet service providers (ISPs) of all sizes, as well as to other incumbent telecom operators.

Currently, InfiniVAN boasts the third largest lit upstream capacity to the internet backbone from the Philippines, with 20+ Tbps distributed across 10 international submarine cable systems.

The digital infrastructure envisioned in this collaboration is expected to support growing global demand from hyperscalers for artificial intelligence computing capacities in interconnected datacenters locally and abroad, and usher in a new wave of investments in Aurora in the digital services sector.

Taway said he is optimistic that the establishment of backhaul facilities connecting APECO to international submarine cable corridors will have multiplier effects, attracting datacenters to locate in APECO and provide an impetus to clean energy investments that will supply the huge power demand for datacenter operations on top of other industries establishing inside the ecozone.

“The convergence of digital and energy infrastructure is expected to create employment opportunities for local communities. As we attract datacenters and energy investments, we also open up opportunities for the people of Aurora.