Vol. XXI, No. 188 [ Business World Online ]
Friday, April 25, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
A TAIWANESE electronics firm is putting up a $5-million LCD plant in Clark, Pampanga and has committed to boost investments and create more jobs over the next three to five years.
The firm, Great Sun Optoelectronics Corp., will produce thin film transmission liquid crystal display or TFT LCD monitors and employ 500 to 800 workers at its new facility in the Clark Special Economic and Free Port Zone.
"Great Sun plans to increase its investments to $30 million and its manpower requirements to 10,000 employees within three to five years," Trade Secretary Peter B. Favila said in a statement yesterday.
The firm, which specializes in the design and manufacture of monitors for computers, television sets and automobiles, will also be talking to about three suppliers to complement its operations.
The government said Great Sun had developed a patented "hi-view" TFT LCD with contrast and resolution 40% to 60% sharper than equivalent brands.
Clark Development Corp. President Liberato Laus was quoted as saying that the project boosts the government’s bid to transform Clark into a logistics and manufacturing hub for high technology products in the region.
Data from the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) earlier showed Taiwanese companies poured in close to $800 million in investments here last year, with manufacturing and mining companies comprising the bulk. The Philippines benefited from big-ticket investments totaling $782 million (about P33 billion in 2007.
Topping the list of investors was Formosa Heavy Industries in Cebu, which committed to pour in $700 million for the 246-megawatt coal-fired plant in Toledo, Cebu and the 140-MW coal-fired plant in La Paz, Iloilo under a joint venture with Global Business Power Corp. — Bernardette S. Sto. Domingo
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