InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA -- Solaire Manila, the fully-integrated resort and gaming complex of Filipino industrialist Enrique Razon in Parañaque City, would create more than 4,600 new jobs, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said Tuesday.
“We are absolutely behind the project, which will surely generate well-paying jobs in the services sector,” said former Senator and TUCP president Ernesto Herrera in a news release.
“We have thousands of Hotel and Restaurant Management graduates who are totally jobless and desperately looking for gainful employment. They will benefit from the project,” said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.
Herrera, designated by President Benigno Aquino III as vice chairman of the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, was referring to Solaire Manila, which is being developed by Bloomberry Resorts Corp. on 8.3 hectares of reclaimed land leased from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).
A Philippine Stock Exchange-listed company, Bloomberry is led by Filipino industrialist Enrique K. Razon Jr. The company has a market capitalization of P260 billion (as of April 4), almost equal that of San Miguel Corp.
The country’s huge surplus of HRM professionals has prompted the Commission on Higher Education to discourage fresh high school graduates from taking up the program, along with four other “oversubscribed” courses -- teaching, nursing, business administration, and information technology.
Phase 1 of Solaire Manila, costing $650 million, will open in 12 months. It will consist of 27,700 square meters of gaming area, including 1,200 slot machines and 300 gaming tables; 500 hotel rooms; international restaurants, coffee shops and bars with 1,363 combined seats; a 1,000-seat grand ballroom; spa and fitness center; a bay view promenade; and 3,000 parking slots.
Even before Phase 1 is completed, the project has already produced some 5,000 construction-related jobs, which Herrera said tend to benefit underprivileged families.
Solaire Manila will serve as the anchor of Pagcor’s Entertainment City Manila, which, once fully developed, is expected to engage a workforce of more than 20,000.
Bloomberry’s aggressive development of Solaire Manila would help propel the country’s tourism industry, which Herrera described as “a potent driver of economic and employment growth.”
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