The new leadership at the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), which administers the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport (CSEZFP), is looking at new investment potentials in agriculture, manufacturing and logistics to diversify its current investment portfolio beyond interactive gaming and fintech.

Secretary Jaime R. Escaño, the new administrator and Chief Executive Officer of CEZA, acknowledged in an email interview with Manila Bulletin that a big percentage or most attention and efforts had been put to promote technology-driven industries, such as interactive gaming and financial technology, by the previous CEZA administration.

“We are also seeing potential in industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and logistics,” he said.

“We are working on developing our ports further because we want to take advantage of the strategic location of the CSEZFP to the most lucrative markets of the Asia-Pacific rim.”

Escaño said that to further improve its attractiveness as an investment hub, CEZA recently undertook eight other major infrastructure projects. These are the continuation of the Port Irene Rehabilitation Project that has upgraded our Port Irene with a bridge and pier, and the development of three four-unit warehouses that expanded the available port facilities that can be offered to port users and locators.

Another project is the construction of a 100-meter causeway to Port San Vicente that has made it possible to accommodate larger marine vessels traveling to nearby islands like Calayan, Camiguin, and even to the eastern municipalities of Isabela that are unreachable by land – Maconacon, Divilacan and Palanan.

Other projects include the development of a multi-purpose sports facility and golf driving range; construction of the 500-meter sea wall in preparation for the proposed 15-hectare development of the Global City District; a two-hectare sanitary landfill; a Corporate Center that will be the location of the new CEZA office; and commercial center that is located adjacent to the corporate center.

“Infrastructure and facilities development undertakings do not end here,” he added. CEZA plans to continue the Port Irene Expansion through dredging and reclamation works, maintenance works for the breakwater and construction of additional piers.

“This expansion project supports our goal to become a major port for international trading,” he added.

Escaño is also introducing CEZA’s “baby projects”, one of which is the construction of a fuel depot. Once materialized, this will become the first fuel depot in the Cagayan Valley Region.

Escaño said the fuel depot has the potential as a big revenue generator, which is estimated to add more or less ₱40 million monthly income to CEZA alone.

The fuel depot, will not only provide additional support facility to the port operations and locators, but will also make available lower fuel cost to local consumers in the region, nearby parts of Region 1 and the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

In addition, the development of a circumferential road system is also one of CEZA’s new projects initiated by Escaño.

According to Escaño the CSEZFP jurisdiction is over 54,000 hectares, but most parts, even just the mainland alone, are still hard to reach. Thus, the new projects of CEZA will allow the state-owned agency to venture on development projects, even to far-flung and untapped areas more easily later on.

All these efforts, he said, will ensure that CEZA is able to accommodate, sustain and support their operations of existing IT-related investments and expand further.

“While we have packaged a very attractive deal for the interactive gaming and fintech industries, the main turn offs that the potential investors have found in CEZA are the lack of existing facilities to house the operations of these industries and the relatively high cost of communication and data services and facilities that are not even top-grade,” he noted.

With that, Escaño said that CEZA will augment the existing IT-facilities in the area by putting up its own state-of-the-art communication system, data center facilities and services to escalate the ecozone and freeport’s competitive advantage.

In the medium-term, Escaño expects CEZA, through the CSEZFP, as a diverse, prospering economic zone and freeport that is effectively functioning as a major catalyst of employment, growth, economic development in Region II and its neighboring towns.

Since 2009, Escaño said that CEZA no longer asked subsidy from the national government for its Personnel Services and Maintenance and Other Operation Expenses. For fiscal year 2023, CEZA was given ₱500 million under the General Appropriations Act for the Economic Zone and Freeport’s infrastructure development program.