DOF: Semiconductors, electronic firms eye PH expansion

A number of major businesses from the semiconductor, electronics, and electric vehicle industry are eyeing to expand their presence in the Philippines, Finance Secretary Frederick Go said on Tuesday.

Go said the government is in talks with foreign businesses for them to widen their presence in the Philippines, which counts the assembly, testing, and packaging of semiconductors as its bread and butter.

“We continue to receive a lot of international semiconductor firms and electronic firms that continue to expand in the Philippines or enter into the Philippines for the first time,” Go said during the ASEAN Editors and Economic Opinion Leaders Forum in Makati City.

Go specifically cited an investment of global tech leader Samsung into the country, along with investments from the creative industry.

Aside from these, Go said the government – through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) – is also in talks with a company to register its electric vehicle manufacturing business here.

“We have to create new markets for the Philippines to trade with, to sell to, which is why the activities being engaged by your economic team, by DTI signing more and more economic partnership agreements, free trade agreements, are really important for our industries to be able to grow,” he said.

“We invite partners to advance not only with the Philippines but with ASEAN as a region through stronger collaboration and long-term investment partnerships. Together, we can ensure that regional cooperation delivers concrete growth and that opportunity translates into shared properity,” Go added.

The Philippines is host of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings this year, following eight months of preparations for physical and logistical requirements. — JMA, GMA Integrated News