MANILA, Philippines ? Intel Corp., one of the biggest foreign operations in the Philippines, has told employees that it will close down its over 20-year-old testing and assembly plant outside Manila, INQUIRER.net sources in the company said.

The announcement was made via email around 10 a.m. Wednesday, the sources said. It gave no date for the closure. Officials of the US-based chipmaker and its local public relations agency told INQUIRER.net they were not ready to give an official statement at the time of this writing.

The plant in General Trias town, in Cavite province, has about 1,800 workers, down from about 3,000 in November.

The sources said the announcement was half-expected after Intel announced in November a first batch of layoffs and the remaining employees were informed of succeeding layoff ?phases." The employees were told that they could get their severance packages in three months? time.

Since then, Intel's local office has also done job fairs and education seminars, such as on starting small businesses.

Intel is said to be shutting down at least three more plants in other countries in view of weakened demand amid the global economic downturn.

Intel first set up a Philippine plant in Makati City in 1974, before moving to Cavite. Last year it announced a joint venture, Numonyx, with Switzerland-based STMicroelectronics in which the Cavite plant would manufacture flash memory chips.

Elsewhere in the Asia Pacific, Intel is widely believed to be consolidating its investments in China and Vietnam.