MANILA, Philippines—Property tycoon Andrew Tan-led Megaworld Corp. has committed to invest P25 billion to develop a 7.1-hectare property of the National Police Commission in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City into a new business process outsourcing (BPO) hub.
Megaworld, which pioneered the cyber park concept in Eastwood City, Quezon City in 1996, disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that the planned development would host more than 500,000 square meters of space for BPO offices and office support services and generate about 80,000 new jobs.
The P25 billion investment is expected to be shelled out over the next seven to 10 years.
Megaworld announced plans to spend P7 billion to immediately develop the first phase of the NAPOLCOM property. Its commitment to the government agency also includes the construction of a new 30-story NAPOLCOM office building in Quezon City and the delivery of 500 residential condominiums in a well-located project in San Juan City to NAPOLCOM beneficiaries.
The office building and residential condominium package is valued at more than P3 billion.
The development of the property is an undertaking of NAPOLCOM and the state-owned Bases Conversion Development Authority with a Megaworld-led consortium under a joint venture agreement. In 2008, Megaworld won a public bidding for the right to develop the property. The company submitted an offer amounting to more than P3 billion, topping those of other proponents.
The NAPOLCOM property forms part of Uptown Bonifacio, Megaworld’s new master-planned township in Fort Bonifacio. Groomed as the next major central business district in Metro Manila, Uptown Bonifacio envisions an integrated setting aligned with Megaworld’s vision to build complete “live-work-play-learn” communities.
Uptown Bonifacio is seen significantly expanding Megaworld’s current BPO office space portfolio of more than 380,000 square meters of space.
“The employment generated by the project is seen to contribute to the economy and the continued rise of the local BPO industry, which is estimated to grow from $9 billion to $25 billion in annual revenue in 2016, and to generate as much as 1.3 million jobs in the same year,” the company said.
Megaworld’s Eastwood City CyberPark, the first of its kind accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), is now home to nine complete BPO office buildings and 35,000 employees. The company said this development was now the top employer and dollar earner among all 70 information technology (IT) special economic zones in the country.
Meanwhile, the company’s other PEZA-accredited cyber parks, located in the 50-hectare McKinley Hill in Taguig City and the 25-hectare Newport City in Pasay City, are envisioned to generate about 60,000 new jobs.