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