The Malolos Medium Industrial Corporation, Phase 1 is designed as an industrial zone for medium to small enterprises. This will be built on a 15-hectare property classified for industrial use. The industrial zone will be subdivided into 37 lots with areas ranging from 1,100 to 1,400 square meters. It will have solar-powered street lighting. It will also have its modern waste water treatment facility.

The project, located in Malolos, Bulacan, is in one of the areas with the highest elevations. Located 27.5 kilometers away from Metro Manila, it is only a 13-minute drive from the Balintawak tollgate.

The project site is also 200 meters away from Mc Arthur Highway and near the upcoming new Bulacan Airport just behind the new railway station. It is only three kilometers away from Robinsons shopping mall.

The project, costing around P4.8 billion, will support all medium to small enterprises, according to Jomerito Soliman, president.

"We will support businesses dealing with agricultural products and its byproducts. It will also provide job opportunities to 1,000 to 2,000 individuals who will work on the 80 warehouses that will be built inside the industrial estate," said Soliman.

The rice-producing areas nearby and remote areas in the North can also utilize the available grain drying and milling facilities. This will become storage areas that will prioritize farmers and cooperatives so that they don't need to bring back their milled products to their far-flung provinces.

Before development begins on the property, due diligence will be completed to develop a comprehensive picture of the physical, financial, legal, and environmental condition of both the site and structure.

This includes reviewing the title, deed, existing loan documents; preparing lease, permits, financial statements, insurance; site inspection and survey; environmental study; civil site and public infrastructure improvements; land use and environmental permitting; geotechnical investigation; structural engineering; and creation of traffic plans.

Project location The project is in Malolos, Bulacan, one of the first-class provinces in the Philippines situated in Central Luzon. The City of Malolos serves as the seat of the provincial government. It is a first- class urban component city which became the 115th city in the country through RA 8754 passed on Oct. 8, 2002. It is located about 41 kilometers north of Manila and is one of the major suburbs next to Metropolitan Manila.

The City of Malolos also lies on the northeastern shore of Manila Bay. Bordering the City of Malolos are the municipalities of Bulacan in the southeast, Guiguinto in the east, Plaridel in the northeast, and Paombong in the west.

Demographics

The City of Malolos has a population of 252,074 as of 2015 census, which shares 7.66 percent of the provincial population. With a population density of 3,263 persons per square kilometer, it is categorized as a high density and fast-growing settlement.

Area classification

The City of Malolos has been identified as high-density and fast-growing settlement, hence, a preference for people moving into Bulacan. Aside from the city's accessibility, the cost of housing is a lot cheaper than the few available found in Metro Manila.

Consequently, real estate developers are capitalizing on the increasing demand for living spaces outside of the metropolis. Thus, it is expected that migration from outside of Bulacan will increase as the province gets more accessible and as more residential areas are available.

Transportation and linkage

Located about 27.5 kilometers from the financial and industrial center of Metro Manila, access to and within Bulacan are made possible by a wide network of national and provincial roads complemented by municipal and barangay roads.

Bulacan connects Manila to other parts of the northern and eastern provinces via the four major roads which are: the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), Manila North Road (better known as McArthur Highway), Daang Maharlika Road, and the NCR-Bulacan Boundary Bigte-Ipo Dam Road. Aside from the four main highways that traverse the province, all roads are widely dispersed throughout Bulacan. These roads also serve as the major gateway for the exchange of goods and other products from the provinces in the north toward Manila.

The Manila North Road and the North Luzon Expressway are the major arteries of agricultural products from Northern Luzon toward Bulacan and Manila. The Daang Maharlika Road and the Bigte-Ipo Dam Road are not only available for inter-provinces exchange of goods, but also for town-to-town exchange of goods and services within Bulacan.

Inter-town travelers in Bulacan can also use the Daang Maharlika Road and the Bigte-Ipo Dam Road could easily be accessed, aside from the municipal and barangay roads located in their area.

Airports

Bulacan is accessible through major airports such as the Diosdado Macapagal Airport in Clark of Angeles City and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and is also proximate to piers and Dingalan Bay. Goods coming from the NAIA that need to be travelled to the northern provinces of Central Luzon have to pass through the North Luzon Expressway. Similarly, the goods coming from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport have to travel through the same road to arrive at Metro Manila.

The New Manila International Airport (NMIA), a $15-billion airport with an area of 2,500 hectares, will soon be built in Bulacan. The NMIA is designed to accommodate up to 100 million passengers a year. It will be equipped with four runways, eight taxiways, and three passenger terminals.

The airport passenger terminal building shall be equipped with airside and landside facilities, and an airport toll road. Depending on market forces, two additional runways are also eyed to handle up to 200 million passengers.

MSMEs performance

As defined under Small and Medium Enterprise Development (SMED) Council Resolution No. 01 Series of 2003 dated Jan. 16, 2003, MSMEs are any business activity or enterprise engaged in industry, agri-business, and/or services, whether single proprietorship, cooperative, partnership, or corporation whose total assets, inclusive of those arising from loans but exclusive of the land on which the particular business entity's office, plant and equipment are situated.

MSMEs work across the three major sectors of the local economy. They play vital roles in building and sustaining an economy. As an engine for the Philippine economy, this sector accounts for about 99.7 percent of the registered businesses in the country. This also holds true about the contri- bution of MSMEs in the economy of Bulacan. MSMEs have been very vital in providing investment, income, and employment to the province.

The province of Bulacan has remained as the MSMEs Capital of Central Luzon and the Cooperative Capital of the Philippines. However, the growth of the MSMEs has recorded a low and slow movement. On the other hand, the figures on the historical number of active cooperatives and the combined assets suggest that this sector is still a thriving segment of the local economy of Bulacan.

In terms of capitalization, the province owns more than 50 percent of the consolidated assets of cooperatives in Central Luzon. It suggests that Bulacan has bigger cooperatives compared to that of other provinces. In fact, at least half of the millionaire cooperatives in the region are in Bulacan.

Further, active cooperatives generated about 67,217 employment in 2008. Historically, the number of active cooperatives is increasing but there was an abrupt decrease from 2009 to 2010. Despite the fluctuations, the trend on the total assets of cooperatives in the province is generally growing. The computation reveals that the total as- sets of the cooperatives is increasing by P0.42 billion annually.

Service sector

Transportation, storage, and communication, which belongs to the tertiary or the service sector, accounts for almost 54 percent of the MSMEs in Bulacan. This sector is made up of 54 percent firms engaged in wholesale and retail trading and the rest deals on finance; insurance; real estate; business services; community, social, and personal services.

Warehousing is undertaken as one of the economic activities in Bulacan. In 2007, there are 110 warehouses with an aggregate capacity of 6,864,101 bags of rice. Except for the municipalities of Bulakan, Calumpit, Doña Remedios Trinidad, Hagonoy, Obando, Paom- bong, Plaridel, and Meycauayan City, the rest has at least one warehouse for rice storage. Some of the industrial estates mentioned above also offer warehousing for storage of different goods other than rice.

Industrial estates

Bulacan is host to 16 industrial estates and two IT Park buildings. These zones house more than 356 business establishments engaged in rice milling, warehousing, trading, hauling/ trucking/ forwarding services, manufacturing, and BPO/ call center.

Success factors for business

Bulacan highlights seven reasons for considering the province as one of the best destinations for business to flourish.

• Strategically located
• Bulacan boasts of its strategic location where it lies equidistant with the northern and southern parts of Luzon. At the same time, it is proximate and accessible to the NCR where most of the development impulses originate. Being near NCR, Bulacan has access to an extensive local market. Dubbed as the "Gateway to the North," Bulacan links Metro Manila to the resource-rich provinces of Central and Northern Luzon. The province's accessibility to major airports such as NAIA, Clark, Subic as well as piers, and Dingalan Bay provides logistical advantage to investors. With its proximity to Metro Manila, the province is also a catch basin for spill over development and population migration.
• Steady stream of productive human resource
• Bulacan has one of the highest literacy rates in the Philippines today. About 64 percent are in economically- productive age. The entrepreneurial qualities of the Bulakeños transformed Bulacan into the MSME and Cooperative Capital of the Philippines. Educational facilities such as universities, colleges, and technical-vocational schools are present and are producing competent graduates.
• Abundant natural resources
• Bulacan has its vast production areas that can produce agricultural commodities for food security and economic development. It also has Angat Dam which is the source of water for domestic water consumption of Metro Manila and irrigation of rice fields. It is also major power source in the Luzon Grid through the Angat Hydroelectric Power plant.
• Well-developed infrastructure
• Industries in Bulacan from micro enterprises to large corporations enjoy the extensive network of national and provincial roads, which are complemented by the municipal and barangay roads. Further, the telecommunication, power, and water facilities in Bulacan have really helped the province pull in investors.
• Effective government-private sector partnerships for investments
• Local government units in the province recognize the expertise and capability of the private sector in fostering sustainable economic growth. In this regard, the Provincial Government regularly conducts consultation with the business sector in planning the directions of the development of Bulacan.
• Favorable peace and order situation
• The province is relatively peaceful compared to other places in the country. In 2008, the province's average monthly crime rate of 2.7 per 100,000 population was lower than that of Central Luzon and Philippines. Further, there is favorable industrial peace in the province as there was no recorded labor strike and no lock- out for the past several years.
• Attractive investment incentives
• The Provincial Government provides incentives to companies that will pour in investment in the province. The Code has identified investment six priority areas, including the establishment of private industrial estates and tourist transport facilities, tourism site development such as theme parks and golf courses.
• The tertiary, or the service sector, is the main driver of the local economy. In terms of the sub-sectors, more than half of the service-oriented establishments are engaged in wholesale and retail trading.