News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 28 Jan 2008

Electronic firms see slight growth in Phillipines

The electronics industry is confident that efforts to bring down the cost of doing business and foreign investments coming into the country could still reverse this year's projected "flat growth" for the sector.

Ernie Santiago, president of the Semiconductor and Electronic Industries of the Philippines, Inc. (Seipi) cited the $ 1.4-billion investments poured into the sector last year, including Texas Instrument's $ 1-billion assembly and test facility inside Clark Freeport which starts production this September or October.

Last year's figure brings to more than $ 2-billion total investments for the sector since 2006 which are expected to spur growth this year, he added.

However, Santiago admitted that globally, investors now would be cautious of increasing capacity amid concerns of a possible recession in the US, the biggest market of Philippine products.

"If this is going to happen, it's just a soft recession and not bad as 2001," he said, recalling the slowdown in global trade that year that reduced the industry's export revenues by 20 percent.

To remain competitive, Santiago said their goal is to further bring down their cost of doing business, particularly electricity rates which comprise eight to 35 percent of their production cost.