Cagayan de Oro, one of top business-friendly cities in the Philippines

Posted by Jane on

Business Friendly City in the Philippines

The first ever green residence in Cagayan de Oro

 

Here’s a Merry Christmas Insight for all of us in Cagayan de Oro.

The National Competitive Council (NCC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently ranked the most business-friendly cities in the country and the results are very interesting. Based on a competitiveness index composed of 30 weighted indicators, it was Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental that came out on top, together with Iloilo City.

The results were presented by NCC private sector co-chairman Guillermo Luz at the Regional Competitiveness Summit held in Makati City on July this year. Aside from the competitiveness index used, the cities and municipalities were also ranked using three other factors: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, and Infrastructure. Based on those three factors, Cagayan de Oro was also rated as one of the top cities in two out of the three categories: Government Efficiency and Infrastructure.

Other cities and municipalities in Mindanao were also mentioned in the top spots. These are Butuan City in Agusan del Norte, Koronadal in Soccksargen, and San Francisco, Agusan del Sur.

These recent findings only mean to say that the government’s efforts to realize the potentials of Mindanao are starting to bear fruit. Cagayan de Oro is now teeming with possibilities and opportunities not only for business but for real estate investments as well. Immense growth can be visibly seen in the past few years as businesses continue to thrive, infrastructures pop out everywhere, development sites are booming, and more and more people are attracted to the city either to visit or to permanently relocate.

Among the top class real estate developments in the city is the two 10-story towers constructed by the green energy company Italpinas. Primavera Residences is located at the heart of uptown Cagayan de Oro, in Pueblo de Oro Business Park, and it is the first ever eco-friendly and self-sustaining condominium building in the city.

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On BusinessMirror: BPI extends loans to eco-friendly projects and programs

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Davao City – Ayala-owned  bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), one of the country’s largest universal banks, sponsored the staging of the first Mindanao energy efficiency (EE) forum held in Marco Polo Hotel Davao recently.

One of its clients under its Sustainable Energy Finance program, Italpinas European Design and Eco-Development Corp., presented its EE case for the real estate industry. In an interview, Italpinas Chairman Arch. Romolo Valentino Nati said there is a need to correct misimpression that green design or initiative is costly.

Funded through a loan with BPI, Italpinas has built an eco-friendly mix-use building in Cagayan de Oro City.

“The mix-use building offers the same price range with other buildings in the market. The building design provides natural ventilation and temperature control inside the building. Use of air-condition units is 60 percent of the total power consumption and with green designs the consumption of energy can be reduced,” shared Nati.

BPI provides funding for EE and renewable-energy projects for companies interested in pursuing green initiatives, and the savings they generate from energy consumption are used to pay for the loan.

“Energy efficiency is the most reliable and cheapest means to contribute to achieving energy security. Power shortages are prevalents in the country and energy cost is increasing. The benefits of EE projects are immediate than building a new power plant, which will take two or three years to operate,” said BPI Sustainable Energy Finance Head Nanette Biason.

 

Featured on BusinessMirror, 6 August 2013

On the Manila Bulletin: In CDO, CEC Builds Mindanao’s First Eco-Friendly Building

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Constellation Energy Corporation (CEC) is spreading its business interests from renewable power to green architecture by building Mindanao’s first eco-friendly building in Cagayan de Oro City.

CEC’s partnership with ItalPinas Euroasian Design and Eco-Development Corporation (ITPI) has earned both firms local and international awards for their pioneering work in the city.

“Constellation Energy’s venture into green architecture is but a natural consequence of our company’s full thrust in exploring multi-technology RE projects,” said CEC Chairman Jose Leviste, whose firm has RE service contracts with the Department of Energy (DOE) for several geothermal, wind and hydroelectric projects all over the country.

Italian architect Romolo V. Nati, ITPI Chairman and CEO, said the firm’s first project, the Primavera Residences – a P450-million mixed-use 10-story twin-tower condominium – has eco-friendly design features, such as an inner courtyard and a cross-ventilation layout among the units to increase natural airflow and illumination.

The 160-unit Primavera Residences Tower A, which was completed last year, boasts of shaded façades to reduce direct sun illumination on the windows to bring down internal temperature of each unit. The building is equipped with photovoltaic solar panels on the rooftop for renewable energy production.

“With ItalPinas, we put our money where our mouth is by going to great lengths to put up eco-friendly and sustainable building,” said Nati, who also sits as vice chair of Constellations Energy.

Atty. Jose D. Leviste III, president of ItalPinas, said Primavera’s “passive design elements” had resulted in the reduction of 20 energy consumption in air-conditioning expense for their building residents.

Due to its revolutionary nature-friendly designs, Nati and Filipino architects at ItalPinas have received a number of green architecture awards, including one of the “Best Condo Developments” in the Philippines at the 2011 Southeast Asia Property Awards (SEAPA) held in Singapore in November 2011; and the “Special Energy Award” in the 2011 Design Against the Elements (DAtE) global architectural design competition.

Recently, its latest green condominium project received recognition from the Climate Technology Initiative Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN), whose funding partners include the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Set up in 2009, ItalPinas EuroAsian Design and Eco-development Corporation has partnerships with ICCP (Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines) Group of Companies, the leading independent investment bank in the country and the owner of a land development estate in Northern Mindanao; Habitat for Humanity Philippines; Pueblo de Oro Development Corporation; and FODC (First Oriental Development Corporation), a triple AAA contractor specializing in green building construction.

 

Featured in the Manila Bulletin, 11 July 2013