Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 16) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is keen to forge ties with the United States in the expansion of semiconductor industry in the Philippines.
Marcos told the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in the US that the Philippine government and the private sector are ready to work with the American group if it plans to invest in the country.
“You can depend on partners in the Philippines that we are ready to work with you,” said Marcos in a roundtable discussion with the SIA on Wednesday. “From the government, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Board of Investments, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority will all be at the forefront.”
“From the private sector, we have the Semiconductors and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, represented today by the Chairman and some of its member-companies,” he also said. “Another is the Private Sector Advisory Council or the PSAC, the members of whom come from different private sector groups.”
Meanwhile, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said the country is aiming to participate in the US semiconductor value chain in relation to the CHIPS and Science Act, a law signed by President Joe Biden to boost the domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductor in the US.
“And as the US increases its front-end wafer capacity for advanced technologies and products under the CHIPS Act, the Philippines stands ready to absorb and support the additional corresponding capacity for assembly, packaging, and test that will be required,” the PCO said.
Marcos is currently in San Francisco, California for a weeklong trip to the US to attend the 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit.
In May, Analog Devices, Inc., an American semiconductor firm, announced a $200 million investment in a research and development facility “to add to its LEED certified production facility at the Gateway Business Park in Cavite.”
There were also at least nine Japanese semiconductor firms that pledged billions of pesos to the Philippines in February.