US computer storage maker upbeat on PH

MANILA, Philippines–HGST Inc., a US-based manufacturer and retailer of computer storage devices and services, targets to make the Philippines the center of its global operations in three to five years given the engineering capabilities of the Filipino workforce and the strong support it is getting from the Philippine government.

Through local unit HGST Philippines Corp., the company is working on making the country its manufacturing and research and development hub as well as its prototyping center.

“That is our ambitious goal. We want to grow our technical capabilities and we want to make the Philippines the R&D center for slider, which is the brain of a hard disk drive. We are now close to our goal,” said HGST Philippines president and general manager Chandramogan Anamirthan.

HGST is now about halfway (50 to 60 percent) through its goal of making the Philippines the center of its global operations. Over the last six months, HGST has transferred 70 percent of its operations from a facility in China to the Philippines due to the talent pool available in the country.

“We want to continue to do that,” Anamirthan said at the 13th CEO Forum of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc.

According to Anamirthan, the goal was to integrate research and development with manufacturing as this will enable the company to get ready for new markets and to develop new products or new generation components.

He, however, clarified that the company’s existing facility in Laguna would have the same production capacity but would, in the future, manufacture new-generation products.

“It will have the same volume but new products. It’s not about increasing in terms of exports. (Our expansion) is about (putting up) a place where people want to work. We want people to come in and expand the factories and the product lines so we need to increase the technical capabilities of our employees, which we are doing now.” Anamirthan said.

At present, HGST Philippines employs about 9,500 employees in its manufacturing facility in Laguna. By the end of the year, Anamirthan expects this number to increase to 10,000, making the Philippines a “very important location for our business.”