The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) on Monday announced it has secured P10.8 billion worth of investment expansion commitments from PEZA-registered Japanese enterprises.
Held from August 28 to September 2, 2023, the investment promotion agency said it participated in an investment forum organized by Junca Global Holdings, and a series of business-to-business (B2B) meetings that capitalized on investment leads sought by PEZA, and those from Sumitomo Corporation and the First Philippines Industrial Park, Inc. (FPIP), one of PEZA’s leading developer-operators.
The investment mission allowed PEZA to secure P10.8 billion in investment commitments from Japanese companies namely the Terumo Corporation, with P1 billion, Taiyo Yuden with P1.6 billion, TDK Corporation with P7.2 billion, and Almex Technologies with P1 billion.
In particular, PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga reported that Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. has an investment plan to operate their business in Taiyo Yuden (Philippines), Inc., which Panga said is a locator that has been growing within PEZA’s ecosystem since 1989.
“The ongoing investment plan [of Taiyo Yuden] covers the calendar year 2023-2024, with the total investment amounting to P1.6 billion. This signifies a continued era of trust and confidence in the country’s investment facilitation climate,” Panga said in a news statement.
PEZA said the metal power inductor is Taiyo Yuden’s newly patented product with cutting-edge technology. It added that the Philippine facility is the first manufacturing site aside from the facilities in Japan.
“The new product is the world’s first multilayer-type metal power inductor with the latest multilayer technology and its unique metal material characteristics,” the investment promotion agency noted.
Meanwhile, PEZA said TDK Corporation, which is an electronics manufacturing company that uses leading magnetic technology, would have its first expansion from 2023 to 2026, while its second expansion will begin in 2024. TDK’s new product, it noted, is a bio-magnetic sensor for monitoring heartbeats.
In relation to the secured Japanese investments, Panga said 2023 is “proving to mark the significant rise of the semiconductor industry with several industry leaders proceeding with their expansion plans to address the projected demand in their products due to the rise of the electronic vehicle industry and steady technological advancements in the downsizing of gadgets and their parts.”
“PEZA will make sure that the country will be poised to receive these investments as we have a small window to get the manufacturing of new high-tech products into the Philippines given the competitiveness of the industry,” Panga added.
Moreover, PEZA noted promising investment leads are in the pipeline such as the partnership with Kiraboshi Bank, LTD. As one of the largest regional banks in Tokyo, Japan, PEZA said Kiraboshi Bank caters to a large network of enterprise clients, including PEZA registration-eligible business enterprises.
PEZA also divulged that talks with the SME Support JAPAN led to the “possible inclusion” of the Philippines in the conduct of CEO Business Meetings, which PEZA said will allow “direct linkage” between Japanese small and medium enterprises (SME) and PEZA registered business enterprises (RBE).
SME Support Senior Director General Soma Hirohisa said SME Support is “looking forward to the possible partnership with PEZA to produce more success stories for Japanese SMEs, similar to those who set up manufacturing facility in the ecozones to export these products to Japan and other global markets.”
Another Japanese company, Kaneko Cord Co., LTD, a company engaged in various industries, such as the production of electrical wires, cables, and the manufacture of medical tubes, among others, is interested in transferring its Japan-based operations to the Philippines, PEZA said.
In fact, PEZA said Kaneko representatives later lauded the productive meeting with PEZA, stating that the meeting “surely expedited the beginning of [their] business in the Philippines.”
Meltec Corporation, a company “working on challenges of precise etching processing,” as described by its website, also has plans to expand their operations in the Philippines due to the country’s strategic location to its clients and the presence of Filipino workers with high-quality skills and positive attitude.
During the first nine months of 2023, Panga said the PEZA Board has already approved P111.207 billion in investments and expansion announcements by some of PEZA’s biggest locators such as Knowles (Philippines) Electronics Cooperation, Terumo, Wipro Philippines, Inc., and Isla Import Terminals, Inc.
Meanwhile, PEZA, in the same statement, announced that on September 1, 2023, it entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with software company NEOJAPAN that will allow PEZA to use NEOJAPAN’s desknet’s NEO and Appsuite, free of charge to PEZA for a limited period.
“The use of these groupware solutions will allow PEZA to digitize, automate, and centralize most of its internal documents and processes under a secure IT environment,” PEZA said in its statement.
Under this partnership, PEZA said it would be taking the lead in government administration, being one of the first Philippine government agencies to use the product as a standard operating office system.
In Japan, desknet’s NEO is used by 40 percent of all Japanese local government units, ministries such as he Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, universities such as The University of Tokyo, and large enterprises such as Toyota, Mitsubishi Motors, Mizuho, Pilot, and Fujifilm.
PEZA emphasized that the MOU is also in compliance with Republic Act (RA) No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and Confidentiality of Information.
