Clark Subic Marketing Blog

Clark Philippines Job Employment Rise Up During the 1st Quarter of 2011

jiroakamine — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:01:08 +0000

As the multitude of employees inside the highest regarded business region rose to 60,322 staff as of January 31 from 57,602 in the comparable period last year.

The Clark Development Corporation assured greater work this year on account of to the anticipated opening of the US$135-million business of Phoenix Semi Conductor of the Philippines; the development programs of a range of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms; and Yokohama Tire Philippines, Inc.

Of the 5,500 job openings, the Phoenix Semi Conductor of the Philippines (PSCP) is anticipated to hire 3,000 people while the remainder belongs to BPOs led by Cyber City Teleservices Inc. with 1,700 slots and the rest from Sutherland Philippines, Iqor Inc., Global Streaming (former AOL), among others.

Retirement and Medical Tourism in Clark, Philippines

jj — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:39:12 +0000

As the world economic crisis looms, we are starting to feel the effects hit our country. Texas Instruments is cutting 400 jobs in the Philippines, and offshore workers are being sent back by the planeload. As I talk with the various Korean hotel and resort operators in Clark and Subic, I am told that they are starting to feel the effects in both their business dealings back home and in their operations in the Philippines.

The positive growth and investment in Clark and Subic is being challenged and we need to be proactive and prepared for a quickly changing world. The depth of this economic crisis is being compared to nothing previously witnessed since the great worldwide depression of the 1930s. If we don’t put our thinking caps on and position ourselves for this downturn, we could be severely set-back and derailed from our lofty goals.

Looking for direction and growth in new areas we should look to Expats, retirees on a fixed income and foreigners looking for a more reasonable place to spend the golden years of their lives. These are groups the Philippine government and the private sector should take the initiative to actively campaign the benefits of relocating to this country.

When individuals think about Subic, thoughts of several adventure parks and the lure of beachfront resorts come to mind. When we think about Clark, our thoughts of golf courses and casinos dominate.

Clark could use a much more firm identity and a means to entice large groups of permanent and semi-permanent residents to its cooler climate and clean air and the beauty of its surroundings. Clark is the perfect location for foreigners, and specifically those looking to retire or relocate to a more affordable environment, but one major consideration are missing.

If we wish to turn Clark into a retirement haven for foreigners, we must realize that a top priority for retirement-age individuals coming from developed countries is the need for top-rate medical care and modern, well-equipped medical facilities.

If our government and the private sector were to focus on creating a truly sophisticated and technologically advanced, world-class medical facility in the Clark Freeport, I believe we would see record numbers of retirees from countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Europe and America arrive on our shores.

As you drive through the Clark Freeport you will see a handful of new subdivisions and high-end housing communities springing-up in lush, tree-lined areas. With Texas Instrument’s new, one billions dollar plant being built, these subdivisions were anticipated to fill-up quickly with management personnel and foreigner’s families. With the world quickly falling into a downturn, we are starting to see work on these communities gradually slow-down.

Clark already offers the benefits of added-security, improved air-quality, wide-open roads, great utilities and infrastructure, world-class golf courses, resorts, hotels, a variety of restaurants and a divided super highway to all the fun and excitement in Subic.

Not only is Clark the perfect spot for a retirement and expat haven, but it would make the ideal location for a medical tourism-oriented facility in the Philippines. With medical tourism on the rise worldwide, the time is now! Almost 50 million Americans have no health insurance and the hundreds of millions that do, continue to see their health insurance cost rise exponentially with many optional procedure not covered by their insurance. More and more Americans are reaching-out to other countries for an affordable alternative to healthcare in their own country. Individuals from the United States and some European countries, seeing their medical costs skyrocket, are looking to combine medical procedures with an opportunity to do a little travel and see some new spots, but for most medical tourists, the main incentive is the price differential.

As an example, the cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth that of comparable procedures in the United States or Western Europe, and sometimes even less. A heart-valve replacement normally costing $200,000 or more in the U.S. goes for only $10,000 in India – and this includes the airfare and a mini vacation to boot. Dental work prices are also very attractive in other countries. A dental bridge normally costing over $5000 in the United States goes for only $500 in India. A complete facelift that routinely costs $20,000 in the U.S. will only cost about $1,250 in South Africa. With these kinds of savings, you can see why individuals are willing to travel great distances, and while they are at it, they get to see some new part of the world.

Countries such as Thailand, South Africa and India see the opportunity and are doing and heavily promoting combination tour/medical procedure packages and then advertising these opportunities to the U.S. and European countries.

There is no reason why the Philippines can’t do the same and we can start the trend right here in Clark. The Philippines has been producing high quality nurses and doctors for many years. Unfortunately, many tend to leave our country to work abroad where the money is much more attractive. If we encourage, both our government and the private sector to invest in a large, state-of-the-art medical facility right here in Clark, staffed it with the best doctors our country has to offer, and pay them wages comparable to western societies, we would retain a good portion of our medical graduates, be able capitalize on the new medical tourism industry and provide a world-class medical facility to foster growth of the retirement sector. If Clark were able to secure this course of action, I believe we could transform this downturn into a turnaround and possibly foster a new opportunity for the Philippines.

SOLAR ISLAND

jj — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:52:27 +0000

If the Philippines play its cards right and the country takes the steps necessary to avail itself of a timely-opportunity, a prosperous, new possibility exists for the Philippines becoming the location for the next California-based Silicon Valley of the coming solar age – a catchy name begs acceptance – let’s call it Solar Island for now?

The Philippines, leveraging some creative-foresight and focused-campaigning can attempt to prove to the solar cell manufacturing industry the idea that our country is the “right place” to locate their new solar production facilities. We just may be able to literally become the de-facto location for manufacturing much-needed solar panels for an ever-changing world. But we have to act fast and provide the incentives and infrastructure in order to capture the market.

THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO CHANGE

The handwriting is on the wall — the scope of world-events occurring in the last few years has made it very clear – the world needs new, clean energy sources. Given global climate change and its negative consequences – skyrocketing oil prices bankrupting airlines and plummeting automotive sales – countries sending hundreds of billions of dollars to Middle East entities of ill-repute – foreign oil dependence leading to a developed country’s instability quotient – the world is ready for a change.

It’s clear the countries of the world will be turning to alternative, safe, clean, renewable power from new sources in order to fulfill their energy demands over the next several decades. The number-one most likely source of this power should be the sun. In 2006, the worldwide market for solar cells was already at $9.5 billion and growing by approximately 20 percent per year. Numerous companies are racing towards the finish-line to development ever-increasing efficiency factors and streamlined processes for the manufacture of these cells for the huge market about to explode.

PROGRESSIVE GERMANY

Germany became creative way back in the year 2000 when their government adopted a subsidy law called the Energy Act requiring the large power companies to purchase all solar power at premium rates from any solar startup project. This spurred a huge growth in Germany’s solar footprint. While they are embracing solar technology to help mitigate global climate change, a very desirable outcome occurred. Solar cell manufacturing companies and other components prospered tremendously under the new energy act and have put an additional 40,000 Germans to work.

CURRENT PHILIPPINES SOLAR COMPANIES

The Philippines already has important solar cell manufacturing company assets; we host two major world players in the solar cell manufacturing business – SunPower and Solaria. A short bio and Philippine footprint of these companies follows.

SunPower, a publically-traded, high-value maker of silicon crystal PV solar cells, produces cells with a 22% light-to-electricity conversion ratio – these are the most efficient cells made anywhere in the world. SunPower operates two manufacturing plants in the Philippines showing an impressive $220 million in solar panel exports for 2006. This cutting-edge company is currently building a new 250 megawatt all-solar power plant in San Luis Obispo, California alongside an even larger 550 megawatt solar plant to be built and operated by another major player in the solar industry known as OptiSolar. These projects represent an important milestone in U.S. power generation in that PG&E, a major California electric and gas utility, will be purchasing the power and supplying it to the actual power grid in California. These two power projects will provide enough energy to serve approximately 239,000 residential homes each year.

Solaria, a privately-held solar cell company, also operating a manufacturing facility in the Philippines, has pioneered a new crystal silicon PV solar cell production method that is more cost-effective than most others. Last year, Solaria brokered a new deal with the second-largest solar cell manufacturing company in the world, Q-Cells. This cell supply agreement guarantees Solaria access to a huge 1.35 gig watts of production capacity over the next ten years. In 2007, when the deal was forged, this contract represented one of the industry’s largest solar cell deals ever. This cell supply arrangement will enable Solaria to produce well over 2.7 gig watts of photo voltaic modules using its proprietary cell-multiplication technology over the next 10 years – a large percentage of these cells will originate from the Philippines.

NEW SOLAR TECHNOLOGY

The last several years have given rise to several new technologies for the solar cell manufacturing processes utilizing various types of semiconductor material. We will investigate one of the major processes becoming increasingly popular below.

The CIGS process stands for Copper Indium Gallium Selenide and is characteristically a thin-film process for disbursing semiconductor material composed of those same elements named above. The CIGS process (a more cost-effective process companies like OptiSolar use) is less efficient than the standard silicon crystal junction technology, producing less electrical power for a given amount of light energy. Silicon crystal junction technology has been the mainstream solar cell production process for many years. The reason the CIGS process is less expensive for making product is the deposition of the semiconductor material is much easier, thereby allowing for much faster, higher-volume and significantly less expensive manufacturing processes. The leader in this solar cell process is Global Solar who is actually producing solar cells on a flexible base material that is substantially lighter than the crystal silicon method, and can be bent to conform to curved surfaces.

Venture capitalists have poured more than $344 million into five other CIGS-type companies in the last few years. These companies are Nanosolar, Miasolé, Solopower, Solyndra, and Heliovolt. This new technology currently looks like the most probable future process.

COMPANIES WITHIN OUR REACH

There are a host of large and small-scale solar cell manufacturing companies throughout the world pushing to position their company to the forefront of the new age of green energy production. Industry sources say there are over 200 solar cell manufacturers in the world with new startups climbing on board the solar wagon almost every week.

Below is a partial list of some of the more prominent solar cell manufacturing companies in the race to meet the expectations of a world in need of energy independence and green power.

Let’s encourage our president and politicians to pursue these companies with completely eliminated tax and tariffs and other incentives to encourage them to build solar manufacturing in the new Solar Island of the Philippines.

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (CIGS)

AVA Solar (CdTe)

Avancis (CIGS)

CaliSolar (UMG Si) [1]

Calyxo (CdTe)

Covalent Solar (CPV) [2]

DayStar Technologies (CIGS)

Dyesol (DSSC) [3]

Ersol Solar Energy AG (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si)

First Solar (CdTe)

Fuji Electric Systems Co., Ltd. (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si)

G24 Innovations (DSSC) [4]

Global Solar Energy (CIGS)

Heliatek (OP)

HelioVolt (CIGS)

Honda Soltec Co., Ltd. (CIGS)

Innovalight (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si)

JA Solar Holdings

Johanna Solar Technology (CIGS)

Kaneka (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si)

Konarka (OP)

Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd. (CdTe)

Miasole (CIGS)

Mitsubishi Heavy industries (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si)

Nanosolar (CIGS)

Odersun (CIGS)

Oerlikon Solar

Plextronics (OP)

PrimeStar Solar (CdTe)

Q-Cells (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si)

ShadePlex (Thin film cells bonded to architectural fabrics) [5]

Sharp (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si), is trying to wean itself from silicon by focusing on thin-film solar cells. [6]

Showa Shell Sekiyu (CIGS), plans to work with semiconductor equipment maker Ulvac Inc on research to raise efficiency of the panels [6].

Solarmer (OP)

Solibro (CIGS)

Solyndra (CIGS)

Sulfurcell (CIGS)

Sunpower

United Solar Ovonics (Amorphous/nanoparticle Si)

Würth Solar (CIGS)

Main article: Solar cell

FILIPINOS ARE ALREADY CONTRIBUTING

Filipino engineers working for SunPower and Solaria have contributed greatly in making many improvements to solar cell manufacturing processes. Some of these include streamlined testing and analysis of complete panels and individual solar cells, new soldering methods for solar cell interconnection, automation methods, new manufacturing material analysis, new quality control methods and logistical improvements involving material handling.

Filipinos can use the presence of companies like SunPower and Solaria to attract direct suppliers and venders in order to encourage other solar companies to take advantage of the Philippines as an effective and efficient manufacturing location. If we are going to attract additional companies, an efficient supply chain and logistical support system will need to be improved and assurance for continual growth. Perhaps the Clark Freeport with its many incentives is an ideal area for the creation of a Solar Centric Valley.

In our efforts to attract new companies, we should continue to research new technologies, processes, understand company profiles and their needs, and most importantly, remaining one-step ahead of the game. Only then can we cease the moment and become a viable and efficient manufacturing location for these important energy-related companies of today and tomorrow.

As Clark and Subic locators, let’s put our heads together, talk to the most influential people in power we may know, and work to get the wheels rolling. Maybe Solar Island is the destiny for the Clark/Subic corridor? Each of us can do our part to help encourage this idea and set the stage for a new and brighter tomorrow for the Philippines. If the sun is the road to a more shining future, then let’s follow it.

World Oil Crisis – Can Clark Set the Standard for Innovation?

jj — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:04:58 +0000

In the time it takes a person to read this sentence, the world will have used about 8,000 barrels, or 336,000 gallons of oil! At 1000 barrels per second, it’s going fast! With China and India developing exponentially faster than ever imagined, we are at a point in history where we have to make some tough choices or risk unimaginable loss.

China for instance, is experiencing an escalation of first-time car buyers that’s unprecedented in modern history – in years past, the majority of the people in this nation of over 1.3 billion would use bicycles as their main mode of transportation. As the Chinese people find themselves in the midst of a period of unparalleled economic growth and prosperity over the last 20 years, the masses are now replacing their bicycles with automobiles. Growing more than eightfold since 2000, China has recently passed Japan to become the world’s second-largest car market, behind the United States. What do staggering car sales, intense industrial production and the related energy consumption and emissions mean to China and the rest of the world?

On Thursday of last week in the good old USA, Al Gore made a speech that was closely watched by a nation in a state of energy-shock and in the grips of the beginning phases of a dramatic recession. In the past months Gore has been hosting a series of solutions summits with scientists, engineers, CEOs, and financiers. Gore’s speech pulled together some of the best ideas gathered from those talks with these top experts from around the world. He detailed what each person can do to help curtail the world’s dangerous addiction to fossil fuels and help solve the climate crisis. He also proposed an aggressive plan that if embraced, would enable the U.S. to both end its reliance on imported fossil fuels and drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions to boot.

Gore’s aggressive plan calls for converting the entire electrical power system of the U.S. to renewable, eco-friendly sources of energy within an accelerated time-frame of only 10 years. Gore emphasized: “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.” Gore claims the technology is in place and all that is needed is the political will to take America into a new energy-independent era of solar, wind and geothermal power. Theses clean and renewable energy resources are highly-desirable, and at this point critically necessary. America and the world desperately need new clean energy assets that emit zero greenhouse gas and would help to curtail the exponentially-progressing climate change currently taking place on mother earth.

The world, not America, not the Philippines or any other country, are at a crossroads – if we don’t focus ourselves of this pivotal point in history and make some drastic choices, and soon, we could be faced with some extreme consequences we don’t even want to admit are possible. We are looking at dramatic penalties for delaying our action – consequences such as extreme weather and the rise of the oceans to levels that will encroach on coastal areas, displacing hundreds of millions of people from their homes.

We are already witnessing damaging and frequent extreme-weather conditions around the world. As we take inventory of intense weather tearing-up the world and causing devastation, we are quite honestly frightened for our future. In the Philippines, we are seeing an earlier start to the typhoon season each year as the intensity and numbers of these killer-storms rise. Just recently, Typhoon Fengshen left more than 1300 people dead or missing. As the current typhoon season approaches, around 20 typhoons are predicted by our weather service to hit the Philippines over the next several months. The recent Myanmar cyclone that killed 84537 people and left 53836 more missing has left that Southeast Asian neighbor entirely devastated with their rice fields under water and unusable for many months or possibly years to come.

America imports 70% of their oil every year and the Philippines importing 100% of ours. If we want to eliminate unstable, rouge, Middle Eastern nations dictating our oil prices and leaving wide-open the possibility of our economy coming to a complete, grinding-collapse, then we need to start to brain-storm, innovate, and facilitate creative ideas that will put us on a course of energy independence – and we need to start now!

I would like to suggest a plan that would allow the locators and governmental entities in Clark to lead the way and provide some ground-breaking opportunity for pioneering change in the Philippines. If properly implemented and supported by government and local industry, I feel this program could be a model for the rest of the nation and possibly the rest of the world. This program could ultimately helping encourage and inspire private business and governments to take the reigns in order to create worldwide green energy solutions to help mediate this weather crisis and lessen the dependence on foreign oil sources.

What if we were to start a private-sector program backed and funded by the companies in Clark? This program would be formed to subsidize public transportation for the Clark Zone, eventually encouraging an all-electric employee-commute transportation system? This program would establish a fund providing a source of low to no-interest loans to encourage Jeepney owners to convert existing, or purchase new, clean, all-electric Jeepney vehicles for transporting workers in and out of the Freeport.

I see this as a voluntary program, establishing yearly contributions to the fund, with the amount of each Clark business owner’s contribution directly related to the number of employees in their employ. With large companies such as Texas Instruments and Samsung participating, substantial fund loading could be realized to ensure the success and sustainability of this plan.

As an incentive for the locators to contribute to this program, the government could offer each participating-company a large tax credit, reducing their taxable income. The amount of credit extended could be a percentage of the individual locator’s contribution to the program – this would create a system where the larger the contribution to the program, the larger the tax credit to the company.

We could ask for CDC’s help in establishing a graduated-mandate. This mandate would state that within a given number of years, all vehicles providing public transportation in the Zone must participate in the Clark Electric Transportation Program.

A NGO oversight supervision group with a credible-history of managing green energy resources and funds would coordinate and monitor the distribution and repayments of loans supplied to the Jeepney owners as well as coordinates and collect the fund of the business owners in the Freeport.

Additionally, this oversight group would be responsible for the build-out of solar-powered electrical charging stations within the Freeport, allowing for entirely free charging to Jeepney owners participating in the program. This oversight group could also be responsible for forming strategic partnerships with companies that produce solar cells right here in the Philippines such as Sun Power, producer of some of the worlds most efficient and creative solar cell products. Companies such as this could help offset the cost of the panels for the charging stations. They could also be issued tax incentives and worldwide exposure as a major contributor to an important green energy solution.

For additional information on Sun Power we’ve included their website address and a couple press releases detailing their Philippine operations below:

http://www.sunpowercorp.com

http://investors.sunpowercorp.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=179419

http://investors.sunpowercorp.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=256947

On the horizon is new super-capacitor battery technology that will increase the effective range of electric vehicles before needing a charge by a factor of 10, and decrease the charging time dramatically to as low as 5 minutes for a full charge. A company called Eestor, based in Texas, is currently working on this technology and is expected to release production units sometime this year. With new, ever-evolving, high efficiency solar cells and longer lasting battery technology and a passion for individual involvement, innovation and change, we can do this! For additional information about Eestor technology, read the Wikipedia article below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEStor

I feel the Clark Freeport Zone is ideally suited for a green energy pilot-program of dramatic and far-sighted scope and proportion. We are an independently-governed and highly-concentrated business zone with a growing base of high-tech companies – several involved in silicon chip manufacturing. The Philippines is home to one of the most efficient and innovative silicon solar-cell manufacturing companies in the world. New battery technology is on the horizon making possible, dramatically extended ranges between charging for electric vehicles. Understanding the opportunity set before us, the world energy demands, the climate change emergency, quickly increased food prices and the need for clean transportation services for our workers, lets labor together to bring a model program, harnessing the free power of the sun to Clark.

I welcome the comments, suggestions and constructive criticism of all Clark locators and anyone with additional ideas here. Please submit your comment using the comment link below.

Adventure Tourism Seminar a Success

jj — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:15:36 +0000

Three days of speakers, discussions and an actual adventure experience at Subic Bay’s Treetop Adventure added up to much information contacts and experience. I was able to gleam much insight into the world of adventure tourism and the potential for it in the Philippines.

Time and again one overriding reminder was reinforced to all of us to remember as we embraced promoting adventure tourism in the Philippines. All of the speakers made sure to instill in us the need to uphold sustainability and ecological preservation as we go forth profiting from this exciting new field.

While each guest speaker was a well-informed professional in the field and each a respected member of various adventure tourism societies and organizations from around the world, they emphasized throughout their presentation complete compliance with maintaining ecological-harmony with or mother earth so as not to destroy what we have been blessed with. Watching documentaries and news stories chronicling the destruction of so many counties pristine natural resources through short-sighted greed, I wholeheartedly agreed.

My question to my readers in this blog post is, how can the Philippines, with the issues of corruption and exploitation of our environment ensure that we maintain our God-given resources?