The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has generated new and expansion projects during a recent outbound mission to Osaka and Tokyo in Japan.
These are on top of the P20-billion big-ticket projects by Japanese companies approved by PEZA as of July.
Tereso Panga, PEZA director-general, said these projects are from Ichijo Corp. which finalized to undertake its expansion plans in 2024, along with possible expansion plans of ShinEtsu Corp., OB Kogyo Ltd. and NEC Networks & System Integration Corp.
According to Panga, Ichijo Corp. plans to increase its annual housing delivery capacity from 15,000 units to 20,000 units in 2024.
Ichijo is poised to contribute significantly to local employment to the tune of an additional 3,000 to 4,000 new jobs to their current 23,000-strong manpower complement, creating new opportunities for skilled workers.
Panga said OB Kogyo Ltd., a die and mold company, expressed intent to reinvest $3 million in their Philippine plant over the next three years.
ShinEtsu Corp., the global industry leader in the production and research of high-performance rare earth magnets, informed PEZA of its possible expansion plans which are dependent on the growth of the global electronic vehicle sector.
Aside from these investment pledges during the recent outbound mission, Panga said PEZA has also approved three big-ticket Japanese investments: Green Energy with Torrefaction Technology, Inc., Asian Transmission Corp. and Pricon Microelectronics Inc.
The three investments will generate 1,973 direct jobs.
“These recent big-ticket investments prove that trust and confidence in investing in the Philippines, particularly from our long-standing trade partners such as Japan, are at an all-time high,” said Panga.
Japan remains to be one of the Philippines’ largest and longest-tenured investment partners and is PEZA’s leading source of foreign investments.
To date, 881 Japanese companies are registered with PEZA with P766.55 billion worth of investments in the country and exports of $5.362 billion annually. These companies employ 340,601.
