Four firms to offer 4,000 jobs this year

At least 4,000 Cebuanos will be employed this year in outsourcing companies locating in Cebu’s newest special economic zone called the Mactan Newtown in Mactan, Cebu.

At least four locators would hold office in the first office building at the 16-hectare property called One World Center, said Noli D. Hernandez, Megaworld Cebu president in an interview yesterday.

“We expect one locator to start by first quarter of this year and about two to three locators by second to third quarter this year. With these companies opening here, we expect 2,000 seats to be opened as well for employees,” Hernandez said.

The fast uptake of Megaworld Corp.’s first office building which hosts the first McDonald’s branch under Choice Gourmet Banquet Inc., a Megaworld subsidiary, will hasten the launching of the Megaworld’s second office building in the township called the Two World Center by the first quarter next year.

2nd building

“With the launching of the second office building, we expect another 2,000 seats to be opened up. Within that span of time, we expect at least 4,000 people now coming here to work,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez described the locators as new companies looking to expand their operations in Cebu.

The Mactan Newtown Center is targeted for completion within five years, once completed, the property is seen to spur more economic activities in Cebu bringing in more investments from the outsourcing industry with its 25,000 office that will generate about 40,000 jobs for Cebuanos.

In 2012, at least 17 new outsourcing companies opened in Cebu which generated at least 11,000 jobs according to the data provided by the Cebu Investment and Promotions Center.

This year, the outsourcing industry is seen to continue to grow robustly according to CIPC managing director Joel Mari Yu.

Megaworld Corp. first announced their first project in Cebu in June last year, after only six months since that, Hernandez said that they have been seeing a lot of positive outcome to their investments including the fast uptake of their residential condominiums.

started

“We’ve already started with the first cluster of residential condominiums called 8 Newtown Boulevard as well as the second cluster which is One Pacific Residences. Because of the fast uptake, we will start with our third cluster next month,” said Hernandez.

Because of the development, Hernandez also said that they were looking at adding more into the property both in terms of facilities and communities as well as its physical size.

According to Hernandez, they are already talking with property owners of the surrounding lots in the area for the planned expansion.

“As what we’ve been saying in the past, we aim to bring in our success in Manila to Cebu. I have to tell you, we started with the same size in Eastwood City, we have expanded over the years and now the area is about 30 hectares or more. We see that happening here in Cebu, there is a very huge potential,” said Hernandez.

Eastwood City is located in Libis, Quezon City. It features 17 high-rise residential towers, 10 office buildings and 65,000 square meters of retail space and is also a special economic zone under PEZA.

With the expansion already in plans, Hernandez said that the P10 billion investment that they announced in June is just an initial amount of investment that they will be pouring into Cebu.