MANILA - President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday led the launch of the Maersk Optimus Distribution Center, a massive ten-hectare 76,000-pallet capacity facility in Calamba, Laguna which the President said will help position the country’s logistics system into “a powerful force.”

Marcos said the the Maersk Optimus Distribution Center “is poised to bolster import and export activities in Southern Luzon,” and is is expected to create employment for a thousand people in its surrounding communities and indirect employment for another a thousand individuals—from vendors and service providers to truckers and beyond

“And I think, (DTI) Secretary Cris Roque will agree with me, those are very conservative numbers. Because generally speaking, when a large plant such as this is put up in a community, the downstream employment that comes -- both full employment and partial employment -- is usually three times the direct employment in the facility. So, it is a great boon to the local community,” he said.

Currently, the Philippine logistics sector employs 3.68 million Filipinos, ranking second only to the construction sector as the fastest growing industry in the Philippines despite challenges during the pandemic.

“Globally, the Philippines’ logistics sector has shown marked improvement in competitiveness. In the World Bank’s 2023 Logistics Performance Index, we climbed to the 43rd spot out of 139 economies, a great improvement from our previous place at 60th in 2018. Our gains in customs efficiency, infrastructure quality, [and] on-time deliveries made this rank improvement possible,” Marcos Jr said.

“With the grand opening of the Maersk Optimus Distribution Center, our logistics system would be a step closer to become a powerful force—bridging our islands, breathing life into our industries, our businesses, bringing together our people on a path towards sustained development.”