Government should invite Japan firms to relocate here - Ty

MANILA, Philippines - A party-list representative urged the Aquino administration yesterday to invite disaster-stricken Japanese companies to relocate their facilities here.

“Many Japanese multinational firms that make cars and electronic products already operate here. We should persuade them to expand their manufacturing activities here,” Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group LPG Marketers Association said.

The temporary or permanent relocation here of these companies’ operations would enable them to restore their production for the global market, while providing badly needed jobs to thousands of Filipinos who remain jobless, he said.

The National Statistics Office earlier reported that the more than 10 million able-bodied Filipinos are now either totally without jobs (2.91 million), or underemployed and desperately looking for more work (7.1 million).

Large Japanese manufacturers such Sony Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., Toshiba Corp., and Canon Inc. have closed many plants throughout Japan, which is reeling from the devastation caused by the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Many parts of Japan also continue to stagger from three-hour daily rotating brownouts, with the continued shutdown of a number of nuclear power plants.

Up to one-third of Japan’s electricity is generated by nuclear power plants, some of which have been severely damaged and have pushed Japan on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe.

Citing Securities and Exchange Commission data, Ty said a total of 110 Japanese firms are among the 1,000 largest corporations in the Philippines in terms of annual gross revenues.