New North Expressway section inaugurated

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – President Arroyo inaugurated and inspected yesterday several completed segments of the North Luzon Expressway (NLE), giving government’s traffic decongestion program a big boost.

The completed segments of the NLE project include sections in Valenzuela City, Bulacan and Pampanga.

"Congratulations to everyone involved in this project that is so strategic to our economy," the President said in her remarks. "We need to change the economy in a way that will create jobs for our people and allow us to fight poverty and win the battle."

With the opening of the completed segments, motorists coming from Metro Manila going up North will enjoy lighter traffic and proceed more smoothly along the 17-kilometer northbound lanes of the Valenzuela to Burol section in Bulacan and the five-kilometer southbound lanes of Burol in Balagtas to Bocaue, also in Bulacan.

The President said, "We need to use the infrastructure and investments to create jobs and defeat poverty. We have identified critical infrastructure that are needed to decongest Metro Manila and expand Metro Manila into a Mega Manila that will be going all the way to Clark, Subic in the North, and Calabarzon in Batangas port, in the South."

She also said that the reconstruction of the NLE is a strong and firm affirmation from investors and creditors on the viability of the Philippines as an economic growth area in the Asia-Pacific region.

The government sees the completion of the NLE as a vital link of commerce between Metro Manila and Southern Luzon to Central and Northern Luzon. This is part of its overall program to attract new and more investments making the Northern Luzon countryside more appealing to investors; spurring economic growth and thus, providing more jobs.

"We need Metro Manila, the main infrastructure project for decongesting the traffic if the Ikot Tren, which we inaugurated yesterday. North with expressway and the North Railway, and South into the expressway and the South Railway," she said.

The fact that investors are putting up the entire $371 million to reconstruct and modernize the NLE attests to the soundness of the project and the viability of the country as an investment haven, the President said.

The President said that NLE modernization is a significant milestone in her administration’s continuing mission to generate economic growth and create opportunities by opening up avenues for trade, tourism and investment in Northern Luzon.

President Arroyo said that those living in Manila can now work in Clark, Subic and vice versa because of the much smoother flow of traffic.

"Because of smoother traffic flow, productivity will be heightened, which will eventually translate to more investments," the President said.

She said that it took the government quite a time to start the project because it must first clear financial, policy, legal and bureaucratic obstacles.

The Presidential Commission for the Central Luzon Growth Corridor (PCCLGC) said that Cetral and Northern Luzon would experience economic growth once the ongoing modernization of the NLE is finished.

PCCLGC Executive Director Blesila Lantayona said that the upgrading of the expressway into world-class standards would create a more favorable climate for business and boost the region’s bid for an accelerated economic development.

The PCCLGC has been closely monitoring the NLE modernization project since it is one the 16 strategic infrastructure projects endorsed by the Regional Development Council (RDC-3) and one that has the biggest impact on the region’s economy.

Jose P. de Jesus, president of the Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC), said that once the project becomes fully operational in 2004, travel time will be reduced in half since the new NLE can accommodate more vehicles.

The $371 million modernization project was partly funded through borrowings from top international lenders, with MNTC putting up $117.5 million and the remainder of $253.5 million coming from foreign sources.

Present during the ceremony were Marita Jimenez, Presidential Adviser on Official Development Assistance Absorption; Press Secretary Milton Alingod; and Pampanga Governor Lito Lapid.