Japan’s NTT World Engineering Marine Corp. (NTT WEM) said it is strengthening its operations in the Philippines to support the growing demand for submarine cable installation and maintenance in the country.
Mamoru Watanabe, president and chief executive of NTT WE Marine, said the company would launch “CS VEGA II”, a new submarine telecommunications cable laying vessel in April 2025.
The vessel, registered under the Philippine flag, is primarily intended to be operated for the maintenance of domestic submarine telecommunications cables within the Philippines and international submarine telecommunications cables in nearby waters.
The vessel will be crewed by Filipino personnel, with both Filipino and Japanese engineers carrying out the operational tasks.
“There’s a lot of opportunity in the Philippines, I’m positive about it. I see the opportunity keeps expanding because nowadays global security is very unstable and there’s a lot of unexpected things going on. Then the demand for submarine cable around the world is higher,” Watanabe said.
“It [the Philippines] is very crucial and very important, and our role greatly affects the economic development in the Philippines. So that’s how much our responsibility is doing this maintenance of the submarine cable here in the Philippines,” he said.
Menardo Jimenez Jr., chief operating officer of PLDT Inc., said NTT WE Marin has provided “very helpful” service to their company in the maintenance and repair of their submarine cables.
“We have just signed last year a three-year contract with NTT Marine so that they can be the one to help us when it comes to repair, maintenance and even rot out of our submarine cables,” he said.
Given NTT WE Marine’s upgraded facilities, Jimenez expressed openness to extending their existing maintenance contract with the company.
“They just launched a new ship. So in terms of facilities, they are new. They’re upgraded. So I think we will continue the partnership with them. There’s no reason why we cannot extend that,” he said.
NTT-WE Marine established its office in the Philippines in 2000 and celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. As the only provider that owns a fully equipped submarine telecommunications cable laying vessel registered under the Philippine flag, it has contributed to the construction and maintenance of submarine telecommunications cables in the country.