MANILA, Philippines – The recovery has not been spectacular, but the country’s electronics industry has been inching up since the month of March.
This was the assessment given to the Philexport News and Features by Arthur Young Jr., chairman of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. (SIEPI), the biggest export industry in the Philippines.
“The lowest ebb suffered by the industry was the last quarter of last year and the first two months of this year. The decline has been bottoming out since March,” said Young only days before official government report on exports for the month of April are to be released.
He explained that total performance in March, although still lower than the same month in 2008, already inched up by 6.5 percent compared to exports in the previous month of February.
Total exports this year may still be lower than in 2008, he explained. But by the third quarter, he expects that total sales will be higher than sales for the third quarter of last year when the industry suffered a double-digit retreat.
As a result of the slow recovery, companies are beginning to recall to work employees who were sent on extended leave at the height of the trade slowdown.
“We are going to win back lost grounds by next year or in 2011, depending on how fast the demand for electronics products kick up in major market,” he said. This would mean that by next year at the earliest, the industry would be enabled to export a total of $31 billion, its peak yearly export sale before the global recession hit our shores.
The industry has stopped retrenchments as a strategy, he intimated. In fact, there were just a few companies that closed shop, but it was the media that sensationalized the situation, Young claimed.
Demonstrating the industry’s confidence in the local economy, he said SEIPI and the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) have teamed up to launch an international investment promotions campaign that zeroes in on the high quality of Philippine workers.
He said that the team expects the investment promotions campaign to target new locators in the field of electronics manufacturing and business process outsourcing. – Philexport News and Features
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
