CCCC, Macroasia win airport project

China Communications Construction Co Limited (CCCC) and Philippine partner Macroasia Corporation have won an auction for a $10 billion airport outside Manila, the latest in a multi-billion dollar push by the Philippines to modernise and decongest its overstretched infrastructure.

CCCC joined airline service company Macroasia in a consortium with the Cavite provincial government to carry out the expansion of the Sangley Point International Airport, one of two big projects that aim to take pressure off the four terminals of Manila’s notoriously packed international airport.

The size of CCCC’s stake in the Sangley project was not immediately clear.

It follows similar attempts by China’s state-run telecoms and energy firms to enter the Philippines, a country with a history of close ties with the United States, and fragile relations with China.

The CCCC-Macroasia consortium was the only bid submitted and was deemed complete, Jesse Grepo, legal officer of the selection committee, told reporters on Tuesday.

Macroasia is owned by the chairman of flag carrier Philippine Airlines.

The Sangley project involves land reclamation and expansion of a small airport, part of a major infrastructure overhaul that critics say President Rodrigo Duterte has been too slow to begin.

The project will be a big boost to an archipelago nation that has failed to attract the level of investment and tourism seen in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, partly due to its traffic problems and inadequate roads, ports and airports.

The main gateway in Manila has been rated as among the world’s worst airports but is set for $2 billion of upgrades and operations revamps.

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp plans to build a 736 billion pesos ($14.4 billion) airport to handle 100 million passengers a year at Bulacan to the north of Manila.

Reuters