Taiwanese computer giant reviving Subic operations, hiring 2,500 workers

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – This premier Freeport is being eyed by potential investors, particularly those who are affected by US President Trump’s withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with locator planning to reopen its manufacturing plant here.

Taiwanese computer giant Wistron Infocomm Corp. is hiring some 2,500 employees as ahead of the resumption of its manufacturing operations here.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Wilma Eisma said the Taiwanese computer giant has conducted recruitment activities here for two days last week in order to hire workers for some 2,500 positions at its Subic facility.

Wistron’s return to Subic came as a direct result of the emerging trade war between the United States and China, as well as of the threat by the Trump administration to withdraw from NAFTA.

“You can say that this again validates the inherent strength of Subic as a strategic business location, because when other countries lose their initial advantages in terms of cheap labor or distribution cost, companies opt for Subic,” Eisma said.

She added that the SBMA expects more global companies affected by the trade war to consider moving to Subic or other economic zones in the country.

According to SBMA Labor Department Manager Severo Pastor, Wistron processed more than 4,000 applications during the two-day job fair, with 900 workers passing the qualifiers in the first day alone.

“They wanted HOTS—hired on the spot, so Taiwanese personnel from the company personally conducted the interviews. The SBMA labor personnel simply assisted in the second day to help process the growing number of applicantions,” Pastor noted.

Wistron Infocomm (Philippines) Corp. started operating in Subic in 1995 as Acer Information Products (Philippines) Inc., a computer manufacturing outfit of Acer Inc., Taiwan’s biggest computer firm.

In 2006, Acer Inc. spun off its Subic operations and infused fresh capitalization of $36 million to include a Mobile Operations Unit (MSU).

In 2008, Wistron contributed more than a fourth of Subic’s $977.84 export revenue, when Korean shipbuilder Hanjin, now the biggest exporter, was just a fledgling operation with US $61.74 million worth of exports.

In 2010, however, Wistron closed its hand-held device plant in Subic, shifting all of its production here to a facility in Zhongshan, China, but leaving its design automation center here.

The move displaced about 700 workers, with 200 reportedly sent off to a Wistron plant in the border-town facility of Juarez in Mexico.

In a clear reversal of fortune, Pastor said the newly-opened positions in Subic were the result of the company’s plan to relocate their operations in Mexico due to the threat by President Donald Trump to withdraw from NAFTA, which he has criticized to have allowed Mexico to “steal” jobs from the United States and opening the border to cheap, tariff-free goods.