NDC looking to invest in 8 priority areas

MANILA, Philippines — Health, food supply chain and climate change mitigation are among the priority investment areas  the National Development Co. (NDC) is looking at for 2024.

“So these remain the (same) areas. We call it NDC priority sectors,” NDC general manager Antonilo Mauricio told reporters.

Among the eight priority sectors, according to Mauricio, are health, which also covers pharmaceuticals, as well as food supply chain.

He also identified climate change mitigation as another priority sector, which also includes environmental, social and governance (ESG) projects.

Other priority sectors include water, construction, education, connectivity and technology innovation.

“So those eight areas are in our strategic map that is submitted to the GCG (Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations) every year and that is going to be our long term priorities,” Mauricio said.

And these areas are actually all aligned with the Philippine development plan and the President’s directive.”

As an example, Mauricio explained that investments in technology innovation is in support of the digital transformation thrust of the current administration.

Asked how much investments the NDC is targeting to make in 2024, Mauricio said it would be quite tricky to answer noting that they are currently limited with their funds.

“Our current projects shortlist requires a funding of P30 billion, but we don’t have P30 billion in cash. You know, we have that in assets, but we don’t have that in cash,” Mauricio said.

“So we will have a fundraising that basically will say look, NDC is here, and we are very confident that it will attract the right strategic partners and strategic investments for these projects as most of these projects have interested investors. But we just need to firm them up with NDCs participation,” he said.

Based on a shortlist from the NDC in December, there are at least 18 projects with expected investments  worth P30.7 billion that are in various stages of evaluation.

Among the projects in the shortlist are the vaccine manufacturing plant in Batangas of Glovax Lifescience Corp., in which NDC is investing P150 million,  as well as the biowaste-to-organic fertilizer project of Davao Thermo Biotech Corp., where the NDC is investing P40 million.

The NDC is also evaluating a P50-million investment for an animal vaccine project of Glovax, P1.5 billion investment in a medical waste disposal project, and P18.5 billion investment in the One DTI Building, among others.

Also in the list is a P150-million investment in a waste-to-energy project of Australian firm Cyclion as well as investments in Singapore-based Kacific Broadband Satellite with P1.1 billion for the purchase of broadband capacity and P550 million for equity.