PSE Circular for Brokers No. 1390-99

June 14, 1999 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 1390-99 PEZA Names Megaworld's Eastwood City RP's First Cyberpark The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has declared Eastwood City as the site of the country's first cyberpark. The PEZA board, headed by Director General Lilian de Lima, recently approved the application of Megaworld Properties & Holdings, Inc. for a special package of incentives to benefit IT firms establishing their operations in the Eastwood City CyberPark in Quezon City. These incentives include an income tax holiday, tax-and duty-free importation of capital equipment, tax credit on domestic capital equipment and raw materials and additional tax deduction for labor expenses. LibLex The incentives are expected to elicit widespread interest among the growing number of companies in the information technology business worldwide especially because the Eastwood City CyberPark is ready to be operational immediately. The CyberPark's core area is now hosting two anchor office developments, the 24-story IBM Plaza and the 19-story Citibank Card Center which is set for occupancy by October this year. Basic infrastructure provisions are already in place including a broad-band telecommunications backbone for the office towers. The granting of an IT park status to Eastwood City is seen to accelerate the take-up of office and commercial space in ongoing and future projects there, thereby upgrading Megaworld's income prospects from selling and leasing activities in the medium term. The core presence of IT businesses in Eastwood City will also benefit the ongoing residential projects in the area in view of an expected demand for such support lifestyle facilities among the IT workers, many of whom are foreign nationals. aisadc Megaworld Senior Vice President for Corporate Management Cirilo Manlangit said the CyberPark will step up the development of the country's information technology industry by exploiting its potentials on a far more advanced level. "In tandem with the Estrada administration, through PEZA, we are making IT a truly high-growth proposition here in the Philippines by providing an ideal environment for its knowledge-intensive aspects to flourish." He added that developing the country's competitiveness in the global IT market is a key objective of the CyberPark. Megaworld recently entered into a partnership with the University of Asia and the Pacific for establishing the Philippines' first IT graduate school in Eastwood City. The CyberPark is expected to generate about P50 billion pesos in export receipts by the year 2005 and provide high-quality employment to some 17,000 people. Investment in project development alone will reach at least P40 billion pesos over the next seven years.