GMA leads groundbreaking ceremony of Texas Instruments in Clark

CLARK FREEPORT ZONE - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the groundbreaking ceremonies Thursday morning of Texas Instruments (TI) Philippines' US$1-billion state-of-the-art test and assembly site of semiconductor chips.

"All this make us the best value and the best place to invest in Asia," she said.
 
The President led the groundbreaking and capsule-laying ceremony at TI's 32-hectare assembly site at the Creekside Road inside this
Freeport.

With an expected investment of US$1 billion over 10 years, the site will incorporate a number of environmental and energy design features first used by TI at its newest semiconductor facility in the United States.

The Clark facility will perform final processing, assembly and testing of sophisticated integrated circuits to be used in a vast array of electronic products such as digital cameras, cell phones and other devices.

Once fully operational, TI’s Clark Freeport’s facility would employ some 3,000 engineers, technicians, operators and administrators. TI employs 3,000 workers in its Baguio City facility.

"When this facility is done it will be the Philippines operations that will have the biggest number of employees in the entire Texas Instrument family," the President said.

TI Philippines has vaulted ahead of the pack of the country's top exporters, with a cumulative value of roughly $21.3 billion since 1978 when it established an electronics circuit assembly and test facility in Baguio City.

Last year, TI's exports reached $3.5 billion.