4 Japanese firms in Lopez group’s Batangas ecozone on hiring mode
Four Japanese companies with manufacturing facilities inside the Lopez-controlled First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) economic zone in the cities of Santo Tomas and Tanauan in Batangas are hiring over 1,000 workers.
In a statement on Friday, FPIP external relations manager John Carlo Navalta said there are at least 1,430 job openings in four of their locator companies including Brother Industries (Philippines) Inc., Canon Business Machines (Philippines), Inc., Ibiden (Philippines), Inc., and Philippine Manufacturing Co. of Murata, Inc.
The new job openings include career opportunities for engineers, accountants, nurses, human resource personnel and other office-based workers, according to Navalta.
The FPIP executive said that 457 job applicants so far, most of them fresh or recent graduates, have hurdled the initial screening and will undergo the next stage of evaluation and screening, including interviews.
Roughly a thousand jobs remain open for job seekers, he added.
Santo Tomas Mayor Arth Jhun Aguilar Marasigan said that the local government unit and other stakeholders regularly hold a job fair to match local workers with companies which operate in the cities.
“This is one way for us to help the locators hire professionals who are home-grown talents in Santo Tomas and the province of Batangas. At the same time, it gives Tomasinos opportunities to get decent and high-quality jobs,” said Marasigan.
Established in 1996, 520-hectare ecozone is a joint venture between Sumitomo and local conglomerate First Philippine Holdings (FPH).
Today, the management of the FPIP said it provides employment for almost 70,000 Filipinos.
Earlier in June, The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) greenlit the registration of the Kaneko Medical Philippines Inc. ‘s manufacturing facility in Batangas.
The PEZA said the agreement paves the way for the company to begin its manufacturing of microcatheters inside the FPIP.
Japanese companies are big contributors in PEZA-administered economic zones, with the investment promotion agency saying they make up 28 percent of the total number of firms in their economic hubs.
The government’s investment promotion agency also said that these Japanese firms have contributed to more than P500 billion investments, $16 billion worth of exports products and 300,000 direct jobs as of 2023 to date.
