DAGUPAN CITY, (PNA)–From 75 to 100 American companies are willing to link up not only with big but also small manufacturers in the Philippines, particularly in the the province of Pangasinan.
This was disclosed by Pangasinan-borne Eddie Ferrer, president of the E.C. Ferrer Customs Broker, Inc. based at Longbeach, California when he and a group of Filipino-American businessmen conducted a trade seminar for local entrepreneurs and exporters at Leisure Coast Resort in Dagupan City, Saturday.
The forum was graced by Pangasinan’s Sixth District Board Member Ranjit Ramos Shahani and Provincial Administrator Rafael Howard Baraan, who thanked Ferrer and his fellow Filipino-Americans who conducted the seminar for opening up the eyes of local entrepreneurs to the big windows of opportunities being offered by the American market.
The good thing is most of these American companies are willing to extend their technologies to companies in the Philippines that will manufacture the goods that they need and sell the same to them, said Ferrer.
These companies will give their technologies to Filipino companies, give some money to them and make them their private suppliers of goods and finished products, Ferrer said.
When we say they are willing to extend their technologies, they will be bringing their machinery to their conduit Filipino companies, train their men to use these for them to be able to manufacture the goods that they want, and buy the same from them,” Ferrer said.
Ferrer said these American companies sent in their officials when he held various trade seminars the U.S., who echoed to him the desires of their firms to link up with companies in the Philippines that could supply the merchandises that they need.
These merchandises include religious items, toys , kitchen wares, hardwares, cottage industries, agricultural products such as mangoes, fish like bangus and even anchovy paste (bagoong) if it could pass strict laboratory standard being imposed by the Food and Drugs Agency (FDA) of the U.S. American companies
“If an American company wants to import and it knows that one Filipino company knows how to manufacture the goods that it wants, it will make the latter as its private supplier,” Ferrer said.
At the same time, Ferrer challenged local entrepreneurs to set their eyes in the export market which was the strategy used by countries like Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam to develop economically as they started with practically nothing after the wars
“You do not need big capital in order to go to export,” Ferrer told local entrepreneurs, adding that goods turned up by different manufacturers can be pooled together in one cargo before being loaded into a ship bound for the U.S.
He also said the activation of the Port of Sual could be the start of the golden age of Pangasinan as goods from Pangasinan can be shipped easily to countries in North Asia, like China, Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong, Vietnam and Japan.
At the same time, Ferrer said that in case local manufacturers forge a tie-up with American companies, factories must be set up in the grassroots in the Philippines to specifically provide jobs to unemployed families.
He suggested that these factories must be located near Gawad Kalinga villages to provide livelihood to their residents.