Arya News - President Marcos said the country had already been looking to move up the semiconductor industry’s value chain before the initiative came along.
SINGAPORE – President Marcos said on Thursday that he was “terribly excited” about the US-led Pax Silica initiative, which he sees as an opportunity for the Philippines to expand its role in the global semiconductor industry beyond manufacturing and into research, design and development.
Marcos said the country had already been looking to move up the semiconductor industry’s value chain before the initiative came along.
“We were already talking about moving up the value chain and not just fabricating the actual semiconductor chips, but moving into R&D, moving into design and development,” he told Forbes chair and editor in chief Steve Forbes during an onstage discussion at the 24th Forbes Global CEO Conference here.
“Pax Silica came along, and we saw that it was a grand opportunity for the Philippines to inhabit more of that value chain that we already had begun,” he added.
Pax Silica is a US-led initiative aimed at strengthening international supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) and other critical technologies.
The Philippines joined the initiative in April, with the government proposing a semiconductor and advanced manufacturing hub in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac, as part of efforts to attract investments in emerging industries.
Projected investments
The proposed development covers approximately 1,620 hectares of land within New Clark City.
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has projected that the hub could attract between $40 billion and $70 billion in investments and generate nearly 200,000 jobs over the next decade.
These figures are government projections, not investments already secured or jobs already created.
The project, however, has drawn scrutiny over its potential impact on agricultural communities, land use and the availability of water and electricity.
In August, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said it had yet to receive an environmental impact assessment application for the proposed hub, citing the absence of concrete project details at the time.
The Department of Agriculture also began assessing the project’s possible effects on farmers in Capas, while the Senate agreed in September to convene a committee of the whole to examine concerns surrounding the initiative.
The BCDA has maintained that the proposed development falls within areas designated for construction under New Clark City’s master plan.
It has also clarified that the hub is intended for semiconductor and advanced manufacturing activities rather than a large-scale AI data center complex.
AI discussions
At the Forbes conference, Marcos linked the Philippines’ participation in Pax Silica to broader efforts to strengthen cooperation on AI and the digital economy within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
He said he had pushed for greater regional discussions on AI after noticing that the technology had not received sufficient attention among Asean member states.
“One of the ideas that I came to very soon after taking on the chairmanship of Asean was that I noticed … Asean wasn’t talking about AI enough, that we weren’t planning on it enough, we weren’t discussing it enough,” he added.
The President also discussed the Asean Digital Economy Framework Agreement, which he said was expected to be formalized during the regional bloc’s 49th summit in Manila in November.
He described the agreement as a framework for cooperation among Asean member states as they seek to develop their digital economies and participate in emerging technologies.
Marcos is on a working visit to Singapore from Oct. 7 to Oct. 11, where he is promoting investment opportunities in digital technology, AI, advanced manufacturing and energy.