Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose Atienza has expressed confidence that the government can attain its mining investment target of up to $13 billion as early as 2010.
Atienza said this optimism in the sector was based on renewed interest shown by investors who attended a mining congress held in China recently.
Atienza led the Philippine delegation to Beijing to speak at the Minister’s Forum at the China Mining Congress, the world’s third largest mining conference. The congress, hosted by China’s Ministry of Land Resources, was attended by some 3,000 investors from all over the world.
Last October, Atienza announced at the Asia Pacific Mining Conference that the government had revised its mining target due to “changes in production schedule of some of the major projects, as well as events in the global arena.” He said the government had targeted as much as $12.6 billion in mining investments by 2013.
Atienza explained that the confidence boost came from two giant enterprises from China and Dubai, both of which expressed intention to invest in the Philippines.
He described one of them, Metallurgical Group Corp. (MCC), as being credited for the growth of China’s steel industry, and the other, Emaar Project Properties PJSC, as the company that built the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the Unite Arab Emirates.
“If these two big projects materialize, we will overshoot our present targets of $10 to $13 billion investments by 2010,” he said.
MCC is interested in downstream investments, such as copper processing and smelting plants, and Emaar is looking for mining and ecotourism developments, Atienza said.
The Philippines is said to be sitting on about $1 trillion worth of untapped gold, copper and nickel resources.
Atienza said that despite the global financial crisis, growth prospects for countries such as India, China, Korea, Australia and other resource intensive economies remained solid. “Thus the demand will continue, and the Philippines can remain optimistic,” he said. With editing by INQUIRER.net
