CLARK FREEPORT?President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo opened the Clark South Interchange of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) on Sunday, providing direct access to Clark?s central business and industrial districts, including the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.

The President led the ceremonial drive-through on the P416.9-million interchange at 1 p.m., joined by Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council chair Edgardo Pamintuan and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president Narciso Abaya.

The opening, held in time for Ms Arroyo?s 62nd birthday, brought the number of access points to Clark to two.

The Clark North Interchange, which opened in January, leads to the Next Frontier, Clark?s second development area spanning 10,674 hectares in what is now the 27,000-hectare Clark Special Economic Zone (formerly the Sacobia sub-zone).

Abaya said the current SCTEx traffic volume ? from 18,000 to 19,000 vehicles daily ? was half of the 35,000-vehicle target.

?Kulang pa (It?s still not enough),? he said.

But by the time the BCDA starts paying the P21-billion loan to the Japanese government in 2011, Abaya said, the traffic volume on the 94-kilometer toll road would increase with the help of additional interchanges in Pampanga.

The interchanges in Floridablanca (70-percent finished) and Porac (60-percent completed) would be opened in June this year, he added.

?They will improve the development of Clark and bring the Arroyo government closer to the fruition of making Clark and Subic international logistics hubs,? Abaya said, referring to one of Ms Arroyo?s promises in her State of the Nation Address in 2001.

Toll fees have remained at P2 per km since the SCTEx opened in April 2008.

In a related development, Presidential Management Staff chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said Ms Arroyo had imposed a December 2009 deadline on all public works, farm-to-market roads and irrigation facilities.