President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo is inviting Japanese businessmen to participate
in the Philippines’ natural gas industry, saying it is a secure,
stable and efficient source of energy, and one practicable to the
operations of the Japanese companies in the Philippines.
 Speaking
at a Natural Gas Forum jointly put together yesterday by the
Department of Energy and Japan Bank for International Corporation
(JBIC) at the Mai Room of the Imperial Palace here, the President
said the power sector in the Philippines is the key reform area,
the reason she is addressing the forum here.
"Indeed, we need to reform our power sector because we have
great needs for power in the years to come," she said.
 The
President said the Philippines will need an additional 6,000
megawatts (MW) capacity over the next ten years and two-thirds of
this, or 4,000 MW can be powered by indigenous natural gas.
"If we take the period 2003-2006, our main island of Luzon,
where 60 percent of the citizens and where Metro Manila is
located, will require 1,600 MW additional power," she said.
The island of Visayas will require 240 additional MW and the
southern island of Mindanao will require 260 MW during the period
between now and 2006, the President added.
 The
President said that it takes three years to construct, operate and
establish a power plant. "Thus we need to act now," she
said.
The answer, she emphasized, to sourcing this huge capital
requirement of the power sector is privatization.
The President expressed the hope that the Japanese businessmen
will play a major role in this key reform program of the
government.
The President said the future of clean energy will take roots in
the main island of Luzon, stressing that her government will give
priority to natural gas, geothermal and wind power.
Accordingly, the President said she will privatize the Sucat Power
Plant in Metro Manila in October this year and the Limay Power
Plant in Bataan by December this year to enable investors
sufficient time to convert these plants into natural gas.
 To
complement these efforts, the President said she has instructed
the Philippine National Oil Company Exploratory Corporation
(PNOCEC) to develop the Batangas-Manila and Manila-Gas Pipelines.
He also urged the PNOCEC to maximize private sector participation
even in these pipeline projects.
The President invited the Japanese investors to talk to the
president of PNOCEC, to discuss possible partnerships or joint
undertakings.
In her talks with the members of the media who accompanied her on
the Japan trip, the President said that one of the important
legacies of her administration is the birth of the natural gas
industry in the Philippines.
"The industry was born in October 2001 when the commercial
operation of the Malampaya Deep Water Gas to Power Project began.
"Exactly a year later, in October 2002, we launched the
natural gas public transport program," she said.
The President also disclosed that in her state visit to South
Korea before coming to Japan, Daewoo informed her of their
investment of some $20 million to assemble compressed natural gas
buses.
"But the most critical role the natural gas industry will
play is in furthering the development of the power sector,"
she said. |
