Japanese electronics firm Nidec Corp. will invest P13 billion this year to hire 10,000 more workers and increase production in Laguna and Subic, an official said Wednesday.

“It is very easy to hire outstanding engineers and workers in this country,” Nidec chairman and chief executive Shigenobu Nagamori said after paying a courtesy call on President Gloria Arroyo.

“They stay with the company for a very long time and they are very good in English. We should have invested more because of the potentials that this country has.”

Nagamori said Nidec would increase production of motors for hard-disk drives to 16 million units from 10 million a month in Laguna, and to four million units from one million in Subic.

The company, known worldwide for its technology that reduces the size of hard-disk drives, has manufacturing plants and research and development centers in six Asian countries and a sales office in Germany.

It has four subsidiaries in the special economic zones in Laguna and the Subic Bay Freeport in the Philippines: Nidec Philippines Corp. (spindle motors for hard-disk drives), Nidec Precision Philippines Corp. (components for precision motors), Nidec Subic Philippines Corp. (spindle motors), and Nidec Copal Philippines Corp (precision mini-motors).

Nidec’s investments in its four subsidiaries here have reached P14.9 billion as of the end of last year. Its new investment would bring the total to P27.9 billion or about $652 million, Nagamori said. Read more...

By Joyce Pangco Pañares (www.manilastandardtoday.com)