A “rapid deployment first-class hospital” is expected to rise at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport following an agreement signed by Slovakia-based Commerce Ltd., the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority said Friday.
“The Cagayan Economic Zone Authority has signed a memorandum of understanding with Commerce providing for the development of the major hospital that will boost health care not just for Freeport but for our people in the region,” said Ceza president and chief executive Raul Lambino.
The new hospital, Lambino said, would open new employment and income-generating opportunities in the province and the region, including medical tourism and retirement communities.
“This is the beginning of a new era of health care in our region. With it, we can attract new investors and spark tourism activities,” Lambino said.
Commerce said in a statement it was confident it could provide health services that would “radically improve the quality of service and infrastructure for patients, workers, tourists and all the people in the region in the years to come.”
Commerce did not give a timetable for the development of the health facility. It assured Ceza that “it will be done in record time as opposed to the average of 5-10 years to set up and build a traditional hospital.”
The company said it already started the “process of project development in relation to the services it shall provide immediately and will provide in the future.”
The hospital will be operated “on the highest standards compliant with European and other world-class standards,” the company added.
Lambino said Ceza was undergoing rapid development with its planned Crypto Valley of Asia in Sta. Ana, Cagayan, a big-ticket project that would be “home to a new wave of financial technology companies.”
The health facility would offer added convenience and confidence to locators inside the economic facility, he added.
