The Trade Department urged American companies to strengthen business collaboration with investors and multinational corporations based in the Philippines.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez in a recent investments forum in the US met with different associations and business executives to offer opportunities in the Philippine manufacturing sector.
Lopez presented the sound macroeconomic fundamentals of the Philippines to American companies and stressed the resurgence of manufacturing in the Philippines.
Members of the American Apparel and Footwear Association in the same forum disclosed the potential relocation and expansion of their manufacturing facilities in the Philippines.
Lopez encouraged AAFA members, which include Tellas Ltd. (formerly Luenthai USA), Under Armour Inc., Michael Kors (USA) Inc., Ralph Lauren Corporation, Coach Inc., and the Ascena Retail Group Inc., (makers of Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant, Dressbarn, and Catherines) to take advantage of the extended duty-free treatment to Philippine exports of travel goods under the Generalized System of Preferences program.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in New York noted that AAFA members and the brands they carry had increased their presence in the Philippines amid the huge domestic market, rapid economic growth and expanding middle class.
Lopez also met with officials of a research-centric organization, the US-Philippines Society, for a collaborative project to streamline the country’s revenue-generating operations, respond to internal and external security concerns and mitigate the impact of global warming on vulnerable sectors.
Shearwater CFO and COO Tom Kendrot joined the series of meetings with Lopez to confirm Shearwater’s expansion through a third operation center in the Philippines opening in 2018 in Iloilo City.
Shearwater is a US clinical solutions provider, with clinical process outsourcing operations in Taguig City and Cebu City.
The expansion is expected to bring in an additional $7 million worth of investments and increase the company’s labor footprint in the country to 3,000 heads.
Lopez shared the government’s focus on infrastructure development with $160 billion worth of projects in the pipeline to directly address investors’ concerns on power supply, affordable telecommunications and efficient transport of goods and services.