By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat
Wells Fargo & Co., an IT company, is transferring a portion only of their activity to India, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Charito B. Plaza has confirmed.
According to Plaza, such transfer consists only one out of their total 200 business lines operating in the Philippines. The locator company assured PEZA that their move to transfer IT/technical BPO services to India is a decision they implemented in all its sites or also in other countries.
Notwithstanding, Wells Fargo & Co. other departments employing more than three thousand Filipino employees will continue their operations in the Philippines, she said.
An earlier Bloomberg report said the US-based bank Wells Fargo & Co. would leave only 50 tech workers out of 750 by the end of the year.
Some of these jobs would be transferred to India where Wells Fargo currently has about 12,000 workers.
On the closure of the Honda Cars Philippines Inc’s. (HCPI) manufacturing plant in Laguna by next month, Plaza expressed concern that “Since some exporters are transferring its manufacturing abroad, the other companies manufacturing Honda parts for exports which are PEZA-registered may also be affected.”
HCPI has 7 major parts suppliers, including Honda Parts Manufacturing Corp. (produces manual transmission) out of the total 47 parts suppliers but which also supply to other car manufacturers in the country. City has local content of as much as 30 percent while BR-V has 28.
To date, PEZA has four enterprises specifically involved in exports and logistics services related to Honda parts, trade, or logistical requirements which employ a total of 847 employees in PEZA ecozones in Region IV-A.
Plaza said that the Philippines’ global competitiveness should be enhanced and protected in the face of global competition and crisis happening due to trade and military wars, coronavirus, and other natural disaster. The PEZA’s one-stop-shop and working incentives should be carefully sustained because they kept hold of our investors and helped to contain the transfer of companies abroad, especially the footloose companies. “We hope that a final CITIRA that is investor-friendly will be finalized.”
But HCPI itself although located inside the Laguna Techno park – Special Economic Zone (LTI is not a PEZA-registered company. It is in fact registered in the Board of Investments under the Department of Industry, Plaza clarified.
Plaza emphasized that clients of PEZA are export-oriented industries and majority of its locator companies are 100% exporting their products and services. Nevertheless, foreign locators have domestic sales allowance of up to 30 percent
of their products to domestic market.