MANILA, Philippines - The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) has embarked on an ambitious project to convert the Subic-Clark-Batangas corridor into an international logistics hub in the country’s bid to service rapidly expanding intra-Asian trade and investments.

Private sector NCC chairman Cesar B. Bautista recently commissioned University of the Philippines professor on urban and regional planning Hussein S. Lidasan to prepare the terms of reference (TOR) on which the masterplan will be based.

Bautista and Lidasan signed an agreement for the initial work for the masterplan last Feb. 19.

Under that agreement, the NCC spelled out its vision of developing an inter-modal logistics system covering Mega Manila that will be integrated globally at competitive costs and quality.

The initiative was also designed to decongest Metro Manila by gradually shifting the cargo traffic from its ports to the new ports of Subic and Batangas.

As a prerequisite to making the detailed masterplan, the Lidasan-made guidepost or TOR, will answer the questions, what needs to be done, what are the pressing issues and concerns that have to be looked at, what economic development concepts should be reviewed and evaluated that would really be appropriate for the corridor, what would give the private sector to actively participate in developing the corridor, and how would the development of the corridor’s inter-modal logistics system be defined to be responsive to such development concepts. 
— Philexport News and Features