By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
After the recent discussion with six (6) Japanese foreign direct investors the opportunities to expand their wiring harness operations under the new CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) Act, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez reported that a second new investor headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Leading Co., Ltd. is entering the country this year to join the growing ranks of Japanese wiring harness manufacturers operating in the Philippines.
“We welcome the expansion of Leading in the Philippines as it will not only generate foreign currency for the country but also create thousands of jobs for Filipinos,” the trade chief said.
“More importantly, the company’s willingness to invest in the Philippines signals on the ground their confidence in the country’s strong fundamentals and as a top investment location in the world,” he added.
According to DTI, Leading has four business groups. These are in trading, electricity, assembly, and wiring harness manufacturing. The wiring harness group is end to end, from design to production. To dynamically meet client specifications, the wiring harness unit invested in state-of-the-art diversified computerization technology.
Further, to ensure Just-in-Time delivery, the company observes a streamlined and efficient process for production scheduling, component procurement, assembly, continuity checks, and visual inspection.
Commercial Counselor Dita Angara-Mathay, the lead officer of the DTI office in Japan disclosed, “Leading Company is going to set up a 1.7-hectare factory in Lima Land to produce wire harnesses. CEO Takahiro Tsukamoto hopes to finish all work related to the establishment of its wholly owned Philippine subsidiary by the third quarter of the year. The plant in Batangas is targeted to produce USD 12 million worth of wiring harnesses annually for export to the US”.
She added, “Leading is the latest Japanese investor to enter the country, at this time of the pandemic. We plan to hold regular consultations with wiring harness players to explore how they can be enticed to produce more high-tech products, which are needed to support the growing interface between electronics hardware and software. Wiring harness applications have been expanding beyond the automotive sector to cover the telecommunications and medical industries. Our Philippine engineers can certainly contribute to investor plans to upgrade products and processes.”
Leading was among the group of Japanese companies present in an online Philippine economic update briefing held on 20 April 2020 where Secretary Lopez, together with officials from DTI, explained the landmark Republic Act (RA) No. 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act to help investors avail of the incentives for their expansion in the country.
“As our economy recovers, we are confident in achieving our pre-pandemic growth rates and beyond. To this end, we are facilitating greater trade and investment in the country by continuously pursuing reforms to foster a better business environment, especially for the electronics sector, which accounts for 60% of our exports,” Sec. Lopez said.
“In particular, we have the aforementioned CREATE Act—a superior and game changing legislation—which makes the investment climate in the Philippines more attractive,” he added.
