TI prepares to open new facility in Clark

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines - Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI), the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors, is expected to operate early June here, belying reports that it will abandon its plant, leaving some 3,000 job applicants in limbo. Clark Development Corp. (CDC) president and chief executive officer Benigno Ricafort said that TI's $1.5-billion plant is almost complete. "Equipment and other facilities, which will be used for its operations, have been delivered to its new building." "Some 100 of its personnel in Baguio are expected to be here to train the new workers," he said. He said that despite the effects of the US economic meltdown, TI would be able to employ some 3,000 workers, but gradually. "I don't think there has been any change in that (plan)," he added. Earlier, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo described TI as the "biggest investment in the economic history of Clark." Reports that the global economic crisis has "dwarfed" TI's operations came after some of its construction workers turned jobless. Ricafort said "that's because they were hired as contractuals to build the [facility]. Now that the buildings are finished so are their contracts," Ricafort said. He also noted that some 80,000 tons of concrete were used for the construction of the buildings within the sprawling 77,000 square-meter TI complex. TI has been operating a 25-hectare plant in Baguio City for more than two decades. This facility reportedly accounts for two-fifths of TI's total sales. TI's $1-billion outlay for the plant, which will be designed as the company's most environmentally efficient assembly site, will be spread over 10 years. TI designs and manufactures analog, digital signal processing and chip technologies that help customers develop products for the affordable mobile phones to classroom projectors that support remote learning, to prosthetic devices. - GMANews.TV