Envoy sees more Japanese investments

CEBU, Philippines -  The Japanese investors coming to the Philippines are growing, said the Second Secretary on Economic Section of Embassy of Japan in Manila, Hiroshi Yamakawa.

Yamakawa led some national and local media for a press tour of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects in Cebu yesterday.

In a press briefing with officials of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Yamakawa said that the Philippines is one of three preferred investment sites of Japan aside from Vietnam and Indonesia forming the acronym, VIP.

He said that Cebu is the preferred place for Japanese investors to invest because of English speaking skills of a young labor force and the strategic location of the province.

There are 198 locators in Cebu registered with PEZA of which 91 are Japanese locators representing 45.96 percent operating in six declared economic zones in Cebu.

Aside from the Mactan Economic Zone, others are Cebu Light Industrial Park and MEPZ II in Mactan Island; Mitsumi Realty Inc. in Danao City; New Cebu Township One in Naga City; West Cebu Industrial Park in Balamban and Cebu South Road Project in Cebu City.  

PEZA reported that Cebu locators have P60.5 billion total investments in which the P30 billion or 49.7 percent came from Japanese locators as of December 2011.

The total export of Cebu locators is $3.6 billion and $2 billion or 56.37 percent of which came from Japanese locators.

Cebu locators employed 104,901 in which 52.90 percent or 55,490 are employed in Japanese locators.

During the courtesy call of the group, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia expressed her appreciation to Japanese investors for helping spur economic development in Balamban and Danao City and its neighboring municipalities outside MEPZ.

“We are really, really very appreciative of Japan’s role in contributing to the growth of Cebu and this progress we are now experiencing,” Garcia said.

Garcia believes that more investors are coming considering the fact that a lot of courtesy calls she has from Japanese companies expressing their desire to make Cebu another investment haven for them.

“I think they see that we have created this very positive business environment here and further, government is always very, very supportive of investments and in business sector,” Garcia said.

Since 2005, the Japanese ODA to the Philippines already amounted to 241 billion Yen comprising loans, grants, aid and technical cooperation.

The party yesterday first visited the Tsuneishi Heavy Industries, a Japanese shipbuilding company in Barangay Buanoy, Balamban town, Cebu.

THI president Hitoshi Kono reported 142 vessels already have delivered since 1997 ranging from 23,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) to 180,000 DWT as the biggest. At present, THI is employing 13,657 workers with only 70 Japanese.

Other ODA-assisted projects that were visited are the Southern Partners and Fair Trade Center, Inc., the food processing plant in Naga City recipient of US$93,910 (approximately P4.3 million), through the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects to upgrade its facility.

Also visited were the Pentax Cebu Philippines Corp., a Japanese camera manufacturer; the Marcelo B. Fernan Bridge and the Mactan Cebu International Airport, both funded by yen loan.—(FREEMAN)