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LEGAZPI CITY, An investment firm in the Philippines' area of Bicolano, headed by a young construction magnate, has put itself in the forefront of industries involving eco-tourism, real-estate, information technology, leisure, hotel and renewable energy among other multi-billion-peso innovative ventures nationwide.
On August 8, 2008, the Sunwest Group of Companies (SGC) held the blessings and soft opening of Embarcadero de Legazpi, a 24 7 operational well-masterplanned information technology, modern trading hub and lifestyle destination in a seafront environment here.
Embarcadero is patterned somewhat after the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California and will house a wide call center, a mall, market, restaurants and a hotel. The call center alone, he said, will occupy 31,000 sq m of the total 51,000-sq-m Embarcadero site, according to Elizalde Co, the 38-year-old SGC president and chief executive officer.
This newest P1.6-billion investment would open on the last quarter of this year.
"We have already started training prospective call-center agents to fell up job vacancies when this call center opens while business-process outsourcing firms such as Convergys, Sutherland Global Services and TeleTech have been invited to put up units in the Embarcadero," Co said.
A separate P1.6 billion had been earmarked for the 40-hectare Discovery Bay Misibis and Misibis Residential Estate in Cagraray Island in the municipality of Bacacay, Albay.
Both projects that are being undertaken by the Misibis Land Inc. are fronting the Albay Gulf.
The Misibis Residential Estate that lies within a 20-hectare elevated terrain gifted below with clean and fine white sand beaches, crystal-clear seawater and green environment is comprised of 300 residential properties sold mostly to Filipino-American and Japanese retirees for private development.
Discovery Bay Misibis that will be composed of 38 luxury villas and 100-room three-story resort units within a five-hectare property to be managed by HSAI Raintree, the hospitality management firm behind Discovery Suites and Country Suites in Tagaytay City and Discovery Shores in Boracay.
This project was also launched last Aug. 8 and Co said, Discovery Bay Misisbis even before the affair had already been made a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), the second of which in the Philippines after Discovery Shores Boracay.
An accrediting SLH member that paid a visit recently said the island resort is even more luxurious than Discover Shores, Co said.
To complement its world-class reputation, Co said he recently bought for Discovery Bay Misibis a brand-new Bell 407 helicopter, a British Aerospace Jet-Stream 32 (BAe J32), a 29-seater private plane, a Catamaran ferry from Austhai Marine and semi-submersible vessel.
These luxurious air and sea transportation facilities will give resort guests the finest amenities such as flying over the crater of Mt. Mayon or have a peer at the lush sea life of the Pacific Ocean, he said.
"Unlike Boracay that caters more to party crowds, Misibis would attract eco-tourists or those who prefer nature and adventure," Co said.
Horse-back riding around the 400-hectare island would also be available while a petting zoo is also being planned to be set up within the resort, he said.
To serve as another amenity for Discovery Bay Misibis, Co is also studying the possibility of developing a hot spring-mud bath spa facility at the Nag-aso Spring, a hot sulfur-rich lake in the municipality of Manito which is a 45-minute boat ride southwest of Misibis.
Misibis that was designed to stimulate local economy and open more employment opportunities to the homegrown labor force has been declared by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Arroyo as a tourism estate zone, the third of such zones in the country after Palawan and Laoag, according to Co.
The bulk of SGC projects are in renewable energy, where Co said he intends to spend about P13.2 billion for the construction of various mini-hydro and hybrid power projects in Luzon and Visayas in the next two years.
SGCs Sunwest Water and Electric Co. Inc. (Suweco) inaugurated last month a twin renewable-energy projects the hydro-power plant in Catanduanes that generates 2.3 megawatts of electricity for the island province and the 2.7-mw solar and wind power facilities in Misibis, Cagraray Island.
Suweco is also set to start works on an 8-mw mini-hydroelectric power plant in Antique while other power plants in the pipeline are three more mini-hydropower plants for Antique, another three in Catanduanes.
By 2010, Suweco would also be able to put up more renewable-energy plants in Negros Occidental, Iloilo City and Cagayan, the low-key Bicolano construction tycoon said.
The power projects are funded from internally generated funds, as well as bank loans and Co said SGC started investing in renewable energy projects because "they are good for the environment and acceptable to the people. We can no longer ignore the problem of climate change."
In the next three years, SGC is investing some P16 billion for all its development projects more particularly on renewable energy that would offer cheaper electricity and liberate communities from erratic power supply from fossil-fed sources, he said.
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