ILOILO City – The Iloilo Central Market and Iloilo Terminal Market – the two biggest markets in the city – will continue to be the center of employment and livelihood of micro-, small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs (MSMEs), Mayor Jerry Treñas reiterated during the awarding of the lease agreement to SM Prime Holdings, Inc.
“No legitimate vendors will be displaced once the redevelopment has been completed. The city government and SM Prime worked together to make sure that all legitimate vendors of the markets will be accommodated in the new facilities. In fact, the redevelopment will allow the city government to accommodate more vendors,” he said.
Mayor Treñas explained that the city government held several consultations and focus group discussions with vendor groups to ensure that their concerns were heard and addressed.
“This even includes an area in the commercial side that selected vendors can use as exhibit area for their products,” he emphasized.
“The market vendors as well as customers and tourists will benefit from a world-class modernized structure that will be cleaner, competitive and more accessible. It will have retail spaces and parking, which will bring convenience to customers and tourists and more importantly generate additional customer traffic for our market vendors,” added Mayor Treñas.
The redevelopment of the two markets is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project of the city government with SM Prime. The lease agreement with SM Prime includes the development of a temporary market facility to avoid business disruption to the vendors while the new markets are being constructed.
The two public markets will still be owned and operated by the city government.
“We very much look forward to this redevelopment. The city will benefit from this project with the employment it will generate and how it will create more business in the entire city. This is in line with our overall development plan for the city,” said Mayor Treñas.
The local government of Iloilo City recently awarded a 25-year lease agreement to SM Prime Holdings for the development of the Central Public Market and the Super Public Market. Under the agreement, the two markets will be developed at no cost to the City Government and will be retained as public markets and managed by the City Hall through the Local Economic Enterprise Office.
For more information, visit www.iloilocity.gov.ph and follow @iloilocitygov on Facebook./PN
