GMA breaks ground for $1-B TI plant

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – President Arroyo led here yesterday the groundbreaking for the $1-billion manufacturing plant of Texas Instruments – its biggest investment outside the United States.

In her speech at the groundbreaking ceremonies, Mrs. Arroyo said the new facility is “our image model in demonstrating that the Philippines has become an increasingly competitive location for manufacturing and high-skilled jobs, along with services , and the booming call center business.”

“I am happy this  $1-billion TI facility here will be producing from semi conductor chips to wafer bumps,” she said. The new plant sits on a 32-hectare property..

The new TI plant is expected to employ 3,000 Filipinos. The TI plant in Baguio, established 27 years ago, has 3,000 Filipino employees.

“Incidentally this is not the only expansion we are celebrating because in Baguio they (TI) are now on a $50-million expansion as well,” she said.

With its new facilities here and in Baguio, TI’s Philippine operations  “will have the biggest number of employees in the entire TI family.”

She said the Clark-Subic area has been attracting investors because of its “strategic location.” “For instance, on the other side of the Clark-Subic road under construction, we have another billion dollar investor Hanjin already operating a shipyard,” she said.

She also noted that another US firm, Sunpower, is expanding its initial $200-million investment in solar panels by another $200 million to triple capacity.

“TI is doing wafer bump for general use. Sunpower is doing wafer bump just for solar panels. The Sunpower expansion is leading to an expansion of Asahi Glass to supply the glass for the panels and the expansion of Asahi Glass is also triggering exploration of silica in Pangasinan,” Mrs. Arroyo said.

“All of these make us the best value and the best place to invest in Asia,” she pointed out.

“We offered a strategic location in our fast growing region. We are just three hours away from the capitals in our region. That is the reason why we are developing Clark and Subic into a logistics and service center,” she added.

She also said her administration is pushing for amendments to the Electricity Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to spur greater competition in the power sector and help bring down electricity rates.

“We hope this will contribute to decreasing power rates in our country. If that’s not enough, we are also working on a legislation to have open access and increase competition so that our rates will go down more quickly,” she said.

The President also cited the need to “reengineer our education system” to make it responsive to the requirements of growing industries.

She cited as an example the curriculum of the University Foundation (AUF) in Pampanga headed by former Clark Development Corp. president Emmanuel Angeles, which is tailor-made for TI requirements.

The President disclosed her issuance recently of an administrative order for the creation of a “high level task force that will reengineer our educational system.” 

The task force will be composed of four representatives from the government and five from the business and academic sectors. The four government representatives are the education secretary, the presidential assistant for education, and the chairpersons of the Commission on Higher Education and the Technology Education Skills Development Authority or TESDA.