Philippines expects $1.85 billion investments from Japanese investors
TOKYO - The Philippines is expecting fresh investments from Japanese investors amounting $1.85 billion, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Thursday.
President Rodrigo Duterte witnessed the signing of the memoranda of understanding and letters of intent for possible joint ventures and new investments among Filipino and Japanese businessmen on Wednesday at the sidelines of the economic forum, said Lopez.
"They will employ about 250,000, the jobs to be generated by these investments and expansion," he told reporters.
The projected investments from Japanese investors are on top of the nearly 21 billion yen loan packages for two projects, which were signed during the president's three-day official visit here.
Key among them were approval by the Board of Investment for Toyota and Mitsubishi Corp. to be one of three beneficiaries of the government’s program to revive the auto industry.
The trade department said Toyota will try to impart $70m until July 2018 to build 230,000 Full Model Change Vios as the registered model within six years.
Mitsubishi, the other member of the government auto program, pledged to invest about $91 million for a new stamping shop facility and production line for its Mirage model. It is expected to be operational in early 2017.
The Philippines' projected investments and aid from Japan were much lower than the $24 billion that Chinese government and its businessmen promised to extend to Manila during Duterte's recent state visit to Beijing.
But Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Japan and China's aid to the Philippines could not be compared because "Japan has been in the Philippines for a long time."
In a statement, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the MOUs and LOIs signed between the Philippines and Japan were the "fruits of the country’s Comprehensive National Trade and Investment Strategy."
The letters of intent to invest or expand business operations in the Philippines include: :
*DTI said Minebea will incorporate its business with Japanese electronics part maker, Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd., by January 2017. Once the merger is done, the name will be changed to Minebea Mitsumi, Inc. and is expected to generate a combined workforce of more or less 30,000 in the Philippines.
Minebea plans to expand its operations in the Philippines, investing about $200 million.
*Kenji Kawano of Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and businessman Vicente Suazo executed the first Letter of Intent (LOI) on a Biomass Fuel Project in Negros Occidental, the trade department said.
The plan is to initially conduct a pilot project valued at $2 million in the form of a pellet factory, which will be fed by a 120-hectare test napier grass plantation.
"Should Tsuneishi confirm the commercial viability of the pilot stage, the next phase is to develop a 2,000-hectare plantation which will support a large scale pelletizing factory with a production capacity of 300,000 MT (metric tons) for export with an additional infusion of $30 million," DTI said.
Tsuneishi intends to engage, train and grow its workforce by involving contracted farmhouses with approximately 6,000 people, it added.
*Shinij Watadani of Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. executed an LOI on a 120-hectare Ship Reuse Center in Negros Occidental with an investment value of $100 million.
The project will engage, train and grow Tsuneishi’s workforce in the Philippines by an additional 2,000 people in three years.
Tsuneishi operates a 1.47 million-square meter dockyard on the west coast of Cebu with roughly 13,000 employees including subcontractors. It has invested over $600 million in the country since 1994 through Tsuneishi Heavy Industries-Philippines. It has also delivered 223 ships and generated export revenues of $5 billion from its Philippine operations.
*Ise Foods is investing in feasibility studies for a joint venture of a state-of-the-art integrated egg facility that can house 1.2 million chickens costing up to $50 million, DTI said.
The project will engage Filipinos to become specialists in the operation and management of the ISE integrated system, which would contribute to the Philippine government’s poverty alleviation and food security efforts.
DTI said Sumifru Group of Companies intends to expand its operation in the Philippines in the next 6-12 months in its banana and fresh fruits projects in different regions in Mindanao. It also plans to set-up a world-class research facility for the banana production.
Farmind Corp. is to enter into an annual purchase agreement of 20 million boxes of fresh Cavendish bananas, DTI said.
The MOUs include:
*Pues Corp. and Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) agreed to complete a feasibility study for low carbon city development through the introduction of electric jeepneys o e-Jeepneys in selected areas in the Philippines. The project will use Japan’s low carbon EV technology under the future Japan-Philippines Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), and will involve the local manufacture, assembly and deployment of e-Jeepneys in the country.
*Nippon Freuhauf, Ltd. and Centro Manufacturing - For a period of seven years, Nippon Freuhauf Company entered into an MOU with Centro Manufacturing to assemble and sell wing-van body sets for trucks valued at US $84 million. This is a concrete example of how Japan and the Philippines’ SME collaboration can attain mutual benefits.
*Ayala Corporation’s (AC) Energy Holdings, Inc. and Mitsubishi Corp. signed an MOU for the development and implementation of a solar rooftop project in the Philippines.
*Hitachi Asia, Ltd., together with Power Grid Solution, Ltd., will be undertaking feasibility studies for the Bases Conversion Development Authority’s (BCDA) flagship project, the Clark Green City. Celerina Monte/DMS
