More manufacturing firms setting up factory in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines - More local and foreign manufacturing companies are expected to enter Cebu as the 70-hectare Cebu Light Industry Park (CLIP) in Lapu-Lapu City has received inquiries and intent from companies to locate at the park this year.

“We are expecting a Canadian company which is into waste water engineering business, a Japanese firm that manufactures medical products, and two more foreign manufacturing companies that are expected to locate in the zone,” said Rommel M. Leuterio, president of CLIP.

CLIP is now down to its last eight hectares available for lease to potential locators, Leuterio said.

The world class industrial estate is now home to 17 locators including Knowles Electronics (Phils.) which had its groundbreaking last week,  with a total of 2,300 employees. The number is expected to grow as Knowles said it will hire 4,000 workers.

According to Leuterio the recovery of the Philippine manufacturing sector is profound now, prompting the company to expand the land area of the ecozone. “We are looking at getting more land contiguous to the Park.”

Leuterio said aside from Canadian, American, and Japanese companies, they are also getting inquiries from big manufacturing firms from Taiwan and   China.

In fact, the Science Park of the Philippines Inc. which manages CLIP and other ecozones around the country is putting up another facility at Calabarzon region.

The revival of interest from the foreign direct investors in the manufacturing sector is attributed to the improved image of the Philippines to the world’s investment community.

Leuterio said the Aquino administration’s strong stance to minimize corruption is the number one “come on” that lure manufacturing companies to locate  in the Philippines at this time.

Leuterio also said  that the weak economy in Japan, Thailand’s flood, and Vietnam’s high inflation also made the Philippine much more attractive to manufacturing investors “once again.”

Earlier, economists urged the Philippines, specifically Cebu to re-activate its bid in attracting the world’s manufacturing sector.

University of Asia & the Pacific economic professor, Bernardo Villegas said that Cebu’s strength in services will not only serve the BPO market, but largely also the manufacturing sector.

“You have to go back in attracting the manufacturing related investments again,” Villegas told Cebuano business community during a recent economic briefing.

Villegas believes that there is a need to restore the manufacturing strength of the Philippines, while China is having labor problems, and some manufacturing firms are looking at other investment sites for relocation, or expansion.

Villegas and other economic experts believe that the Philippines should seriously consider attracting the manufacturing investments in order to solve unemployment problem, and balance job opportunity distribution that will include the grassroots. (FREEMAN)