Investments in electronics up to $511 million in January-July

MANILA, Philippines - Investments in the electronics sector grew to $511 million for the first seven months of the year, overshooting last year’s investments figure of $469 million.

“The industry is very bullish in terms of investments,” Semiconductors and Electronics Industry in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) president Ernesto Santiago said in a press conference.

In fact, he said their target is to attract $1 billion worth of investments this year. For January to July, Santiago said most of the investors are new players.

However, the electronics industry said growth will start to slow down in the third and fourth quarter after growing 44 percent for the first five months of the year.

 “We are preparing for the softening of the market by the end of third quarter until the fourth quarter. Hopefully it does not extend until 2011,” Santiago said.

Because of the softening of the market, Santiago said it is possible that they will not be able to hit their revised target of 25 percent to 30 percent. Initially, full year target was at 20 percent.

“For the third quarter, it will be lower than expected. The growth will taper down,” Santiago noted.

In terms of exports, Santiago said their target is to hit $27 billion to $28 billion for the whole year. Exports for the first half was $14 billion. Full year 2009 exports was at $22.2 billion.

Likewise, he said that they are in the process of crafting an electronics sector roadmap. During the session, he said they will identify five product technologies and five technological evolutions. After that, they will select technologies that the country can focus on.

For the product technologies, Santiago said they will look at solar and packaging technologies among others.

For the solar technology to take off, SEIPI chairman Dan Lachica said that there is a need to narrow down the cost differentials between solar and conventional energy sources. Currently, the Philippines is not involved in all the steps in producing solar energy.

Lachica said that the potential for exporting solar energy could reach up to $1 billion. He said the Philippines can hit this mark by next year. Currently, solar exports amount to $800 million annually. “There are efforts to attract more solar power companies,” he said.

Aside from this, the roadmap will contain recommendations for the government. He said they will identify areas where they need government support. He said they expect the roadmap to be completed by October.