The dawn of 5G technology is changing the consumer electronics landscape and the Philippines continue to enable global companies take advantage of the next big leap in speed for wireless devices.
The Make it Happen in the Philippines: Electronics Manufacturing Services Webinar Series (PART 3) featured AUTOMATED TECHNOLOGY (PHIL.), INC., which has over 25 years of proven track record in offering premium Outsource Electronic Manufacturing services to global companies. It’s Semiconductor Division includes its pioneering “Captive Line” concept that provides the customer a superior, cost-effective alternative to outsourced services for Assembly and Final Test. It’s newest Division, ATEC Connectivity, specializes in RF, Microwave and Millimeter wave manufacturing solutions for existing and emerging products of OEMs and ODMs that covers DC to 90Ghz spectrum.
Mr. Domingo Bonifacio, Executive Vice President and General Manager for ATEC Connectivity, is a licensed Electronics and Communications Engineer from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, and continued his education in Microwave Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, CA. He started his career in Silicon Valley with leadership roles in Litton Industries, Gould Inc., Dexcel Inc., and Optical Microwave Networks Inc. (OMNI) in San Jose, California, U.S.A. He founded Pacific Microwave Corporation (pioneer RF & Microwave manufacturing) in the Philippines in 1996. Today, he is responsible for expanding the Electronics Manufacturing Services Division and sits as a member of the Board of Directors at ATEC (Phils.) Inc. He has vast experience in managing and leading high technology manufacturing firms within the semiconductor and electronics industry.
ATEC Connectivity has been providing cost-effective, high-quality manufacturing solutions for complex products of global companies in the broadband wireless, satellite communications, telecommunications, aerospace, and defense sectors, including applications for agriculture, medical and health, industrial, and commercial systems and in particular, equipment used in 5G infrastructure.
What advantages does the Philippines EMS industry have over other electronic manufacturing services for wireless equipment manufacturing hubs in Asia?
Dr. Rafaelita Aldaba, Undersecretary for Competitiveness and Innovation of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), has highlighted the Filipino Talent with over 790,000 graduates, more than 200,000 of which are in engineering, medical, and IT-related fields. The top emerging jobs in the Philippines are all STEM-related – robotics, cybersecurity analysts, data engineers, data scientists, cloud engineers, and so on. These signal that businesses in the Philippines are all gearing towards technology applications as well as innovations, which are important foundations for us to expand and grow our EMS ecosystem in the Philippines. That’s really important for companies that are planning to locate or relocate their activities from elsewhere.
The Philippine government is also undertaking the modernization of the Philippines’ taxation and incentives systems which is going to bring down corporate income tax from 30% to 20%. This bill is also going to provide generous incentives, especially those who are bringing in innovative and high-tech activities such as electronics and EMS products. At the same time, these proposed changes will remove the nationality requirements.
Another exciting development is the signing of the RCEP, which consist of ASEAN plus China, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, which altogether represent a market of 2.2 billion people, account for 28% of world trade, 30% of world GDP, 24% of world inward FDI, and 34% of outward FDI.
“Countries that are not members of RCEP could invest and make the Philippines their hub in order to take advantage of all these additional opportunities. RCEP provides a more stable and predictable and fair environment for business and investments. To benefit fully from RCEP, the Philippines is building its infrastructure. We are connecting supply chains as well as the entire ecosystem for electronics manufacturing services and the electronics sector. We are also capacitating our industries to make them ready for global and regional representation. Our strategy is to fast-track innovation and adopt new technologies with a greater focus on strengthening the EMS sector.” – Undersecretary Aldaba.
Mr. Bonifacio also highlighted the technical talent in the Philippines. ATEC Connectivity’s management, engineering staff, and workers have over 30 years of collective experience in the assembly and testing of RF, microwave, and millimeter-wave products. It has extensive experience in the unique RF and microwave manufacturing assembly and testing processes that these technologies require. Hence, ATEC Connectivity can bring the product into full production faster at the least cost for its customers.
ATEC Connectivity, being strategically located within the Asian region, where the majority of materials are being sourced, has likewise established long-term relationships with Asian suppliers. Its customers can enjoy and leverage ATEC’s volume price breaks as a result of consolidated parts purchases, lower freight charges from shipment consolidation, duty-free on Import/export, and alternative sourcing. For high volume production, ATEC Connectivity has experience in establishing vendor-managed inventories with suppliers and maintaining lean, JIT inventories to mitigate risks in ending up with excess and obsolete inventories. ATEC can take care of supplier development activities, from First Article Inspection to final qualification and approval, including localization of parts, packaging materials, and others.
ATEC Connectivity has competitive labor cost, tax-free duties for import and export, less than 1% manpower attrition, and most importantly, protects the IP of customers. ATEC Connectivity’s decisive advantage rests on its engineering, technical and managerial talents that enable its customers to deliver its products in the global market with minimal supervision.
Make it Happen in the Philippines
The Philippines is creating the EMS ecosystem and upgrading its position in the electronics global value chain by focusing on specific products. This combination of manufacturing, highly skilled workers, and the Philippines’ comparative advantage in IT makes it a very good partner for countries looking at a manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia.
The recorded version of the webinar is available on-demand at https://youtu.be/aXklgBWmdKM
The webinar series is organized by The Philippine Trade and Investment Centers (PTICs) in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, together with the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI).
Join us for our next webinar. Interested participants may register for the upcoming webinar at https://bit.ly/39C72G5♦
Date of Release: 15 February 2021
