A new modern city is rising in Central Luzon, as investors look for an alternative to Metro Manila which is bursting at the seams amid the capital’s sustained economic expansion.
Clark emerges as an economic hub in Central Luzon which is at the center of the country’s demographic sweet spot given its large population of young, educated and skilled workforce. With a median age of only 23, the Philippine economy has been growing faster than anywhere else in the world.
Clark, where infrastructure development is in full swing, is ready to lead the next wave of growth as the new economic hub. Clark International Airport is less than two hours away from Taiwan, southern China, Hong Kong and Macau, and only three hours away from Japan, Thailand, northern China and Singapore by plane.
Sitting at the crossroads of North Luzon Expressway and Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway, Clark is also 30 minutes from the newly expanded Subic Bay deep-water port.
Under the Duterte administration, the well-connected city is poised to raise its profile further. With the revival of the Manila-Clark railway route, Clark will transform into even more of a destination.
Atop one part of the old US Airforce Base and adjacent to Clark International Airport is a 177-hectare site that is transforming into an important commercial and logistics hub. With the incomparable advantage of its strategic location, Clark Gateway City is one of the largest development sites in Luzon and already has easy access to air, sea, and land connections.
Clark Gateway City is also close enough to Metro Manila for its residents to benefit from its concentration of businesses, but distant enough not to suffer from the congestion consuming the capital.
Clark Gateway City is the brainchild of Global Gateway Development Corp., an international firm that has been developing the fully master-planned property.
Designed as the answer to Metro Manila’s Bonifacio Global City, GGDC has built the site to the highest international standards of quality, safety and design.
Mark Williams, chief executive of GGDC, said the master plan provides for parks and open spaces that, in addition to the site’s modern sewage system, keep the city livable, disaster-ready, while minimizing its environmental impact.
The Medical City hospital opened in Clark Gateway City in 2014, bringing the best of the Philippines’ healthcare to Clark and Central Luzon.
Close by is the growing campus of the University of the Philippines in Clark. Once an extension of UP’s flagship campus in Diliman, UP Clark is being expanded into a three-hectare permanent campus.
The government is featuring Clark as the site of the 31st ASEAN Summit when the country hosts the gathering in November 2017.
Clark is tapping the young and educated Filipinos to drive growth. The backbone of this remarkable growth story is the country’s demography. The 100-million strong population is projected to reach 123.6 million by 2030 and 148.3 million by 2050, according to the United Nations estimates.
Over a third of the population is under 15 years old and only 5 percent is over 65 years of age, based on the survey of Philippine Statistics Authority. These factors distinguish the country from its more development Asian neighbors, including China and Japan.
The Philippines’ young, highly literate, and English-speaking population has been a driving force behind the country’s growth as the chief attraction of the BPO industry, which generated $21.2 billion in service exports in 2015, based on the data from the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines.
In 2014, investment advisory firm Tholons identified Clark and six other Philippine locations as part of the Top 100 BPO destinations worldwide. Clark-based BPOs can draw from the more than 60,0000 new graduates in Central Luzon each year. The graduates come from over 220 colleges and universities in the region, which enjoys a lower cost of living than the National Capital Region.
As Metro Manila is straining to accommodate a growing population and business activities, it has outgrown the capacity of its infrastructure designs. The congested airport is landlocked and has no further room to expand.
In 2014 alone, over 470,000 square meters of office space was added in Metro Manila. Despite this, vacancy rates have been on the decline, reaching figures as low as 4 percent.
With Manila’s capacity close to the hilt, the country’s BPO sector is approaching a crossroads. The industry is estimated to have employed up to 30 percent more people between 2014 and 2016, growing from 1 million to 1.3 million people (IBPAP).
New companies will need to take advantage of locations and labor outside of the capital. Central Luzon has the best advantage. As the third-largest region in the Philippines, it is host to 11.1 percent of the country’s population, comparable with the 12.75 percent of the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila.
Despite the similarity, the NCR is about 40 times more dense, with a population density of 20,785 people per square kilometer as opposed to the 512 per square km of Central Luzon (PSA).
The answer lies in Clark, which is recognized by the government itself. The administration committed to an PhP8-trillion infrastructure spending program that highlights transport links outside the capital, including the revived Manila-Clark railway.
Over the next ten years, as the Philippine economy grows and its young middle class grows with it, Filipino and international businesses and workers will be catering to larger markets and will require proportionally larger, more efficient, and better connected environments to keep up the pace.
With the infrastructure and connectivity already in place, Clark in Central Luzon is one of the best-places to take advantage of. Its proximity to Manila already makes the airport a viable alternative to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, together with its road and sea connections.
Developments outside the capital give a vision of what the future could look like. A well-planned and extensively connected Clark Gateway City holds the key to sustained Philippine economic growth.