The National Development Cop. (NDC) has lined up P30.72 billion investments as equity in 18 projects with a total cost of $558.54 million, its general manager Antonilo Mauricio said.
According to Mauricio, these projects have been shortlisted out of a hundred project proposals. These are in varying stages of evaluation, approval and release.
Five of the 18 projects are in advanced stage as they have all started implementation this year namely the Philippine Innovation Hub (iHub); a vaccine manufacturing plant; broadband satellite; composting facility and waste-to-energy.
According to Mauricio, NDC has established new criteria investing: the projects must be pioneering, developmental, sustainable, inclusive and innovative.
“We are transforming NDC into a niche investment platform that specializes in filling gaps that the Philippines urgently needs to be filled,” he said.
“(The year)2023 has been a challenging yet productive year for NDC because of its streamlining and capacity-building initiatives.
The iHub at the NDC Building in Makati is the headquarters of the Startup Venture Fund (SVF), the Philippine e-commerce platform, and the upcoming Ph AI Research Center. It has already signed Knowledge Partnerships with 12 organizations in 2023, and also serves as a co-working space and event space for start-ups, partners, and stakeholders.
The SVF’s first investment is in SolX, a deep-tech electricity utilization startup that was endorsed by the Philippines’ Energy Regulatory Commission.
The country’s first vaccine manufacturing plant located in Taysan, Batangas is undertaken by Glovax in partnership with LG Lifesciences of Korea and Eubiologics.
NDC’s investments with Kacific Broadband Satellite group will allow the agency to pre-purchase frequency blocks from Kacific at a lower price, which in turn will be sold at lower-than-market prices to Philippine buyers.
NDC’s investment in Davao Thermo Biotech Corp. is aimed at expanding the pioneering composting facility started in 2015 by creating a franchise model to replicate this in other parts of the country.
The last project is a pioneer waste- to -energy endeavor from Cyclion of Australia that converts biowaste to green fuel.
It is a potential sustainable and environmentally-safe solution to two urgent problems: garbage and fuel.
Other projects include animal vaccine; medical waste disposal; peak off-grid solution; solar hybrid project; biowaste-to-organic fertilizer; soil conditioner; refrigerated warehouse
One DTI building; bamboo projects and; gamma irradiation facility. Irma Isip
