Garments and footwear are the major industries in Mariveles located mostly at the Bataan Export Processing Zone, a former 1,200 hectares barren jungle i transformed into a modern industrial complex with more than 60 multinational companies manufacturing products for the World and providing employment to more than 25,000 Filipinos.
Bataan Export Processing Zone preferred industries are: Wearing apparel, Garments, Textile, Electronics, Sporting Goods, Leather Products, Chemical Stabilizers, Fiberglass, Reinforced Plastic Products, Materials Handling Equipment, Synthetic Optical Lenses. Remarkable progress took place at the Bataan Export Processing Zone, the first and premiere economic zone in the country, now called the Bataan Economic Zone.
Most of the large-scale industries operation in the province of Bataan are located in Mariveles. There are two economic zones operating in Mariveles , the Bataan Economic Zone and the Petrochemical Industrial Estate. The Bataan Economic Zone contributes 30 to 40 percent of the regional export sales. Some of the locators in the zone manufacture shoes, textiles, tennis balls, optical lenses, electronics as well as bulk handling of grains. The Petrochemical Industrial Estate, as the name connotes, will house chemical and other heavy industries. Current locators in the estate are the Petrocorp, which established a polypropylene plant and the Phil. Resin Industries which will construct the first polyvinyl chloride plant in the country. A polyethylene and naptha cracker plants are also in the pipeline. The Bataan Technology Park, Inc. now has locators from Crown Pacific, Inc. and Asia International Auction. Future investors have envisioned putting up a cutflower and honeybee production, and taxi-cab manufacturing.
Export performance of Bataan reached $ 416,158,578 in 1998, generated mainly by the Bataan Economic Zone (BEZ) and the Petron Bataan Refinery (PBR).
Investments. Investments generated amounted to P3,398,191.00 in 1998 which represents in investments through business name registrations, financing and enterprise assistance and BEZ expansion.
THE PETROCHEMICAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
The nominal entry of new investors in the country, in the 1990’s, while reflective of the global economic downtown, nonetheless brought another giant investment in Mariveles. The Philippine National Oil Company – Petrochemical Development Corporation (PNOC-PDC), a multi-million dollar project, came in as the biggest single investment in 1993.
Sprawled on a 530-hectare land along the coastal area at Brgy. Batangas Dos, PNOC-PDC operated and developed the area as a petrochemical industrial estate, and established thereat petrochemical and related industries either by itself or in joint venture with private investors. Today, there are five companies operating within the complex employing some 2000 Filipino workers.
PLASTIC CITY
Diversified Plastic Film, a petrochemical downstream industry established its plant at Brgy. Alion. Now, on its expansion phase, it is expected to become a plastic city and has a projected employment of 5,000 workers in the next five years.
