Philippines remains an important market for Schneider

MANILA, Philippines — French multinational firm Schneider Electric sees the Philippines as an important market in Asia and is eyeing to upgrade its manufacturing plants in Cavite.

Asia has the fastest growth in terms of energy and of automation that’s why it has become a center for investments for the French multinational firm, Schneider Electric chairman and CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire said.

“For us, the reason why we have chosen to focus on Asia is simple. It has more than 50 percent of the world’s population and has the fastest growth in terms of energy and of automation,” he said.

“You will see more of Schneider Electric here as we keep on investing a lot in this part of the world,” Tricoire said.

Schneider Electric president for East Asia and Japan Tommy Leong said investments are focused in the 10 ASEAN markets plus Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

In particular, the Philippines is viewed to have an important development potential and a strong manufacturing aspect for the company, Schneider Electric executive vice president for international operations Luc Remont said in a separate interview.

“We look at the development potential of markets and the Philippines, from my standpoint… there is high speed of development and high potential of development,” he said.

In terms of manufacturing, Schneider Electric’s Cavite plants are among the company’s leading global factories, having manufactured various products which are exported globally, Remont said.

“We continue to invest in our Cavite plants. We plan to transform it into the most advanced smart manufacturing, where we will deploy all competencies, and digitization you can see here in Singapore,” he said, referring to the recent Innovation Summit the company conducted there.

Schneider Electric currently has plants in two other countries recognized as one of the 10 most advanced manufacturers in the world.

“We [want to] show that this [Cavite] plant can be one of the most advanced in the world,” Remont said.

“We want Cavite to be one of that shortly. We are in a good place to do that.”

The French multinational firm offers integrated solutions across multiple market segments, including leadership positions in energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation and data centers/networks, as well as a broad presence in residential applications.