J&J launches Global Finance Services Center facility in PHL
Business Mirror
October 4, 2016
Johnson & Johnson (J&J), a leading consumer, health-care and pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world, has recently launched its Global Finance Services (GFS) Center facility in Parañaque City, according to the Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau.
The center will provide high-quality and cost-effective transactional processing and financial reporting services for J&J’s global governance, executed at global, regional and country levels.
GFS will provide the human-resource and procurement-services requirement, aside from finance services requirement of J&J branches in Asia, the US and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), as well as Australia.
J&J has GFS centers in other countries such as China, Prague, Saõ Paolo in Brazil, India and the US. GFS in Manila is projected to be the biggest J&J GFS center in the world.
The opening of GFS is aligned with the strategies for export growth and development laid out in the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2015-2017. The GFS services constitute interventions on goods and services that are aligned with the country’s comparative advantage.
According to DTI-EMB Director Senen Perlada, PEDP extends a package of support to selected sectors that addresses their vulnerabilities and strengthens their capacity to meet the challenges in the global market. Shared services centers (SSCs), such as the GFS, are one of these sectors.
Perlada added that the Philippines is host to one quarter of all SSCs across the Asean region.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the “main driver of GDP growth was the services sector, which accelerated to 7.9 percent for the first quarter of 2016, from 5.5 percent of last year.” Perlada said services exports are estimated to increase between 9 percent and 10.3 percent this year, and between 9.9 percent and 12 percent in 2017,with growth being driven by the strategies for export growth and development laid out in the Philippine Export Development Plan 2015-2017.
Perlada reported that total exports in 2014 reached $86.9 billion, with goods accounting for 71 percent, or $62.1 billion, while services made up 21 percent at $24.8 billion.
With bolder initiatives and improved investments incentives plan, the DTI looks forward to attracting more companies and investors to the country. At present, many have opened their hubs in Manila, reflecting the continued confidence of investors in the rich talent and services pool in the Philippines.□