Maasin pushes BOT scheme to attract investors

By BONG PEDALINO
July 7, 2010

MAASIN CITY  –  Come on in.

The city government here has served notice its doors are swung wide open for interested locators to do business in the city, and in a move to entice capital to come in, the operative word used in dealing with prospective investors is build, operate, transfer (BOT).

City Mayor Maloney Samaco, speaking in a bi-weekly, city-paid block time program in DYDM recently, disclosed that he has been meeting with people described in the business world as movers and shakers, offering them the BOT way of trading in the city.

So far, a hotel operator in Cebu City has expressed interest to come and develop a mountain resort in and around Guinsuhutan Falls, a tourist spot found in barangay Cagnituan, an interior village about eight kilometers by distance from city proper.

In addition to its natural pool below its pristine, cascading waters, the Guinsuhutan Cave provides added attraction for adventure seekers, with a river inside the cave traversing one kilometer going through another upland barangay.

In earlier pronouncements, Samaco had said he had talked with one of the owners of the renowned Gaisano Mall operators to pursue the city’s openness to welcome the mall giant, and talks on this matter are still ongoing.

At present, the city is constructing another edifice at the opposite end of the new public market at the terminal building to house the dry goods section, with a budget of P72 Million the source of fund mainly from the city coffers.

In the past, negotiations with Gaisano to occupy this building, which was still in the drawing table then, did not materialize, and there was no clear clue just yet if it will be one of the occupants once the new building will be finished.

In the radio program “Maasin City in Action” hosted by Zaldy Olita, Samaco also disclosed that he was inviting land developers to make a reclamation project of their own and let businesses be put up there, selling the land they had reclaimed, if ever, still in the parameters of the BOT scheme.

Now on his second term, Samaco said he will devote more of his time to be more aggressive at meeting with investors to let them consider coming to the city.

In his first term, a surge of building-construction in the center of the city can be readily noticed, and more store outlets, food chains, banks, and pawnshop branches have opened.