The world’s leading provider and distributor of personal protective equipment (PPE) is in talks with the government to put up a nearly $2-billion industrial town that would produce PPE, electric vehicles (EVs) and textile, among others, the Board of Investments (BOI) said.
BOI said in a statement on Wednesday that it is in talks with Medtecs International Corp. Ltd., which is planning to put up the industrial town. Headed by its chair Clement Yang, the company met with top officials at the BOI in a courtesy call last March 23.
“The envisioned industrial town is projected to generate approximately $1.9-billion foreign direct investments and around 125,000 jobs in seven years,” BOI said, without specifying either a location or a timeline for the project.
Citing Yang, BOI said Medtecs is eyeing to develop an industrial town that would include production facilities for EVs, PPE and integrated textile manufacturing that would use tropical fibers particularly abaca, bamboo and banana.
Textile supply chain
BOI said Medtecs is keen on bringing in the missing gaps in the country’s textile supply chain such as yarn production, spinning and weaving, including the production of recycled polyester textile.
In a related note, BOI, again citing Yang, said Medtecs has already started production its melt-blown nonwoven fabric, a critical filter medium used in medical-grade face masks. With a project cost of around $600,000, this project in Bataan has a production capacity of 25 million face masks per month, while only needing around 15 employees to run it.
BOI said the face mask production project is registered with the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan. It is located at the Medtecs compound in Mariveles City, Bataan.
BOI managing head and Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said all these business activities can avail of incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act.
“The undersecretary underscored that highly desirable projects with minimum investment capital of P50 billion or job generation of at least 10,000 may avail of incentives of up to 40 years,” BOI said, referring to Rodolfo.
Rodolfo also offered to introduce Medtecs to relevant local players in EV assembly and nickel mining companies, as well as to arrange for a presentation featuring the New Clark City, which would include site visits in Capas and Bamban, Tarlac.