Ten Japanese companies which are big names in global image solutions, electronics components, and medical device manufacturing, have expressed interest to explore expansion and diversification projects in the Philippines valued at $3 billion but are held back by operational and fiscal bottlenecks.
This was indicated by these companies at a recent dialogue with the Department of Trade and Industry recently.
Collectively, these companies represent $2.5 billion in investments, $6.9 billion in annual exports, and over 83,000 in total employment.
These companies include Brother Industries, Canon Inc., and Seiko Epson Corporation are among the top five vendors in the global multifunction printer market; Terumo Corp. and JMS Co., Ltd. which are market leaders in the Asia-Pacific medical device industry;
ROHM Co., Ltd. which has an 80 percent share of the isolated gate driver integrated circuits market; NIDEC Corp. and MinebeaMitsumi Inc., leaders in the micro DC motors market; Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., a major manufacturer or multilayer ceramic capacitors for consumer electronics devices and automobiles and; IBIDEN, a market leader in the diesel particulate filter market.
The DTI said the companies have chosen the Philippines as the manufacturing site, leveraging mostly on the country’s high-quality human resources.
But they said they are encountering problems like the timely issuance of travel visas for their executives and engineers, the processing and release of permits and licenses by regulatory agencies, value-added tax and other additional taxes by local government units, and access to new coronavirus disease-2019 vaccinations.
The DTI said the companies sought assistance by way of green or express lanes similarly provided by host governments in Asean for foreign investors.
The Japanese entities reiterated their desire to fully vaccinate their employees, citing the strategic role of their Philippine facilities in the global supply chain. . Irma Isip
