Japan to help Philippines become regional manufacturing hub

MANILA, Philippines — Japan is assisting the Philippines in becoming Southeast Asia’s manufacturing hub as part of the continued cooperation between the two nations.

The Philippines and Japan conducted last week its third round of industrial cooperation dialog to focus on strategic areas of partnership.

“This discussion will allow Japan to contribute and help the Philippines take advantage of its competitiveness and position itself as a manufacturing hub in the ASEAN region,” head of Japanese delegation and Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official Satoshi Miura said.

“The experiences of Japanese firms in specific industries like the automotive, electronics and other selected industries will hopefully spark the country to undertake the necessary reforms and action plans to push further ahead,” Miura added.

Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said the industrial cooperation initiative is focused more on collaboration than negotiation.

“Being the country’s second largest trading partner, we value Japan as among our partners in nation-building as the Philippines continues to modernize and expand its economy anchored on the Build Build Build program of the government. This dialog will hopefully serve as the template for our bilateral negotiations with other countries in terms of partnership and cooperation,” Rodolfo said.

The Philippines is undertaking its industrial development vision through the Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy or the i3S.

The i3S prioritizes the growth and development of 12 major industries which includes manufacturing of which automotive is part of, electronics, aerospace, shipbuilding, chemicals, IT-business process management particularly knowledge process outsourcing, agribusiness, infrastructure and logistics.

The i3S will usher in the upgrading of local industries which will allow them to better participate in global value chains, and generate more, better, and higher value jobs for the Filipinos.

The third round of dialog between the Philippines and Japan, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), was expected to deepen the cooperation and further boost trade and investment ties between the two countries.

According to the agency, extensive discussions were made on strategic areas such as the state of the automotive industry in the country and the direction of the automotive policy, creation of large-scale employment through the establishment of domestic industrial base, creation of high value-added employment through innovation, and prospects of fintech startups and regional development.