The Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of the Korea Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) will be sending a technical team to further assess the anchor sites of the Bohol-Cebu Multi-access Friendship Bridge in prelude to the conduct of the feasibility study and advanced detailed engineering design that it will be funding. EDCF Country Representative Man Hwan Park was here on Monday to personally check the Getafe point of the proposed “superbridge”. The next day, he went to Cordova to also check the Cebu side. Based on the presentation by Engineer Gregorio Sayson of the Second Engineering District, the bridge will measure 17.25 kilometers and will reach 22 kilometers including the viaduct. It will pass through the Olango and Hilutongan channels where international vessels pass en route to Cebu. The technical team will be cruising through the length of seawaters from the Getafe side to Cordova side. Having to pass the two channels, the project will involve the construction of suspension bridges. In his initial estimate, Park said it will cost US$500 million. In initial plans, it shall be implemented through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

Project Manager Yung Qu Park of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co., Ltd escorted Man Hwan Park , together with the provincial government team. Getafe Mayor Tessie Camacho assured the EDCF director that an area of 100 hectares is ready for future expansion of the anchor site in Poblacion pier zone. Then they checked the Corte Baud point. From there, Vice-Mayor Cary Camacho toured Governor Erico Aumentado, Park of Hanjin and Park of EDCF , on board a speedboat, along the coast of the anchor site towards barangay Bagacay, in Talibon where the team of Mayor Juanario Item and Kagawad Gershon Dulang welcomed them.

The multi-access friendship bridge has been packaged with the multi-industrial cluster included in the bilateral agreement that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed with South Korea . Aside from technically connecting Bohol and Cebu , the project has also been eyed to bridge all the opportunities of the two provinces and possibilities in all aspects of development. It shall also be through the bridge that the planned power supply from the Visayas grid be coursed through from Cebu to Bohol and the possible water supply from Bohol to Cebu .

In Talibon, Aumentado and Item's team showed to Park, the site of the eyed 100-hectare special economic zone where the US$100-million bio-ethanol plant of Korean government's Biolsystems, Inc. will be constructed, occupying 60 hectares of it. The municipal government of Talibon is now in the process of completing the paper works and the special economic zone has been eyed to be launched by end of this year. From Talibon, they proceeded to Mabini, through Ubay, then to Candijay and Panglao, passing through the roads included in the eyed Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Project Phase 3 (BCRIP 3). In his trip to Seoul , Korea earlier, Aumentado continued negotiations with KOICA for the implementation of the Bohol Irrigation Project Stage 3 (BHIP 3) and BCRIP 3.

KOICA funded the feasibility study of BHIP 3 through a US$1-million grant from EDCF. The governor now wants it implemented together with BCRIP 3 through Official Development Assistance (ODA). BHIP 3 involves raising the height of Malinao Dam in Pilar by at least two meters to double its reservoir's capacity, thereby increasing its service area. BCRIP 3, on the other hand, covers concreting of 93.52 kilometers out of 125.4 kms. of road and the rehabilitation and improvement of seven out of 13 bridges totaling 75.7 lineal meters which would cost P1.4537 billion. BCRIP 3 includes Panglao Island Coastal Circumferential Road broken down into the Dauis-Biking-Panglao Section of 22.9 kms. and the Dauis-Tangnan-Panglao Section of 14.2 kms. for a total of 37.1 kms.; the Guindulman-Anda-Candijay (GAC) Coastal Circumferential Road of 35 kms.; the Candijay-Mabini-Ubay (CMU) Coastal Circumferential Road of 39.9 kms.; the Tagbilaran City Diversion Road of 6.99 kms. average and the Baclayon Bypass Road of 6.25 kms.