Subic sets sights on becoming another HK

Subic sets sights on becoming another HK

By Claire Wallerstein

SUBIC BAY, Philippines: Five years after the eviction of U.S.
troops from their largest base in Asia, Subic Bay has set its
sights on the ambitious goal of becoming the region's next Hong
Kong.

Subic's reincarnation scheme is the result of a potential
disaster in 1991, when an increasingly nationalistic Philippine
senate refused to renew the base's 46-year lease. The move was
unpopular with tens of thousands of people in Subic's neighboring
town of Olongapo, whose livelihoods depended on the base.

The suffering was compounded later that year when the eruption
of Mt Pinatubo spewed volcanic ash over the whole area.

One man was determined the town would beat the odds. Richard
Gordon, then mayor of Olongapo, mobilized 8,000 locals to work
without pay to maintain and protect the base while he attracted
foreign investors.

His determination paid off with the creation of the Subic Bay
metropolitan authority, today home to hundreds of foreign
companies. Exports so far this year have totaled around US$3
billion.

Gordon has now produced a "Hong Kong Strategy", aiming to cash
in on the handover by enticing at least 50 of the former British
colony's 400 banks to Subic and developing it as an offshore
financial center.

But if Subic wants to be a new Hong Kong it certainly doesn't
look like one. Without a skyscraper in sight, this is no bustling
metropolis, and two-thirds of Subic's 45,000-acre site is still
covered by protected virgin rainforest.

Gordon boasts: "Subic has an ideal central location in Asia,
in a stable and English-speaking country, and has tremendous
space advantages over Hong Kong." He also points to the benefits
of $8 billion of abandoned U.S. Navy infrastructure, including
docks, an airport, warehouses, and a generator.

But many of those who have already invested in Subic believe
Gordon is getting carried away by an unrealistic pipe dream.
Brian Johnson, the Australian managing director of Subic Surf
Corporation, which makes wetsuits, said: "If Richard Gordon
thinks he can make this place another Hong Kong, he's making a
huge mistake."

Among an array of problems deterring investors, Johnson lists
bureaucracy, high rent, import-export delays caused by corrupt
customs officials and the expectation that investors will recruit
their workforce from Gordon's band of former volunteers.

Johnson claims Gordon, who makes no secret of his presidential
aspirations, has gone from local hero to dictator, denying
investors any say in the planning of Subic's future.

"I understand that Richard Gordon wants Subic to succeed, but
he must remember he is a public servant -- he has a job given to
him by the president, he's not a bloody king," he said.

Not all investors are grumbling. Jeremy Simpson, president of
Cambium International Inc, British manufacturers of cigar
humidors, who relocated to Subic from Hong Kong in 1994, said:
"Of course there are some irritations, but compared with other
places I have worked in Asia, this is heaven on earth."

-- The Guardian