Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu
20 February 2013
President Benigno S. Aquino III led the unveiling of Megaworld Corporation’s flagship project in Cebu, The Mactan Newtown, held in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu province.
The President was joined by the company’s top executives headed by its chairman and chief executive officer Andrew Tan.
In his message, President Aquino lauded Megaworld for its vision to develop another Eastwood City which was one of the company’s early successes in township-type projects. “This is your first such project outside Metro Manila, and the people from around here can assure you that you’ve made the right choice. If there is any place where you can replicate your success in such projects in Metro Manila, it’s here in Cebu. The workers you will find here are skillful, creative and light-hearted, while possessing an unshakeable pride in the quality of their work,” the President said.
He also shared the good news that he recently received from Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez. “In 2011, we recorded 37.5 million domestic travellers. Just to put this number into perspective, this already surpassed our original 2016 target of 35.5 million domestic travellers. Given this very positive growth in domestic travel, Secretary Jimenez and the DOT have raised the 2016 domestic tourism target to 56.1 million travellers. By then, we expect that we will need more than 37,000 additional rooms in our destination clusters, which includes Cebu,” President Aquino noted.
The Mactan Newtown is a 16-hectare property and is said to be the biggest project so far of Megaworld in the southern Philippines. It will have residential condominiums, business process outsourcing (BPO) offices, retail and entertainment strips, wellness facility and an upscale boutique hotel.
Megaworld executives said that in five years, The Mactan Newtown will be one of Cebu’s key drivers of growth as it is poised to provide the growing BPO industry with enough spaces to accommodate 25,000 office and BPO seats or generate some 40,000 jobs. It is also seen to boost tourism in Cebu province since it is located just beside Shangri-La Mactan and adjacent to Portofino Beach Resort.
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