Procter and Gamble Philippines inaugurated Thursday a P864-million facility in Cabuyao, Laguna that will house the newest manufacturing line of its diaper brand Pampers.
The facility is one of the three biggest investments of P&G in the Philippines in 2022 to 2023, said Department of Trade Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual in a keynote address.
“This P864-million investment is the direct outcome of a critical economic reform that the Philippine economic team has pushed for since the previous administration— Republic Act 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act or CREATE,” he said.
P&G Philippines applied for registration of the new manufacturing line for Pampers pull-up pants in September 2022 under the CREATE Law. The products will be exported to Korea and Vietnam.
Pascual said disposable baby diapers, sanitary towels and feminine hygiene products are pandemic-proof products, if not pandemic-driven. The export value of these products, which P&G also manufactures, jumped over six-fold from $6 million in 2018 to $40 million in 2022.
South Korea was the top export market for these products, followed by Vietnam and Malaysia in 2022.
“As we welcome more investments in producing these products under the CREATE Law, the Philippines may depend less and less on importing such products,” Pascual said, adding that P&G’s recent investment fulfills DTI’s six strategic actions to promote science, technology and innovation-based industrial strategy.
The project is said to sustainably upskill and reskill workers while demonstrating the enabling Philippine business environment for investments. It also contributes to the country’s industrial development, trade and investment, while promoting regional development through innovation.
From the vantage point of the Philippine government, the new diaper manufacturing line will generate government revenues and create direct and indirect jobs. It will also link the Philippines to the global value chain for manufacturing and distribution across Asia, according to the DTI.
“Like many other countries, the Philippines’ recovery from the pandemic has not been easy. But P&G Philippines’ investment shows that our country’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong and that our structural reforms are well-crafted and working. These pandemic shock absorbers caused the Philippine economy to achieve a 7.6 percent GDP growth [in 2022], the highest rate in over 4 decades,” Pascual said.
He said P&G Philippines, as a Philippine manufacturer, could leverage on the Regional Competitive Economic Partnership to enhance its access to the Asia-Pacific regional market as well as its linkages to the global value chain.
“RCEP will make some production inputs more accessible, our exports more competitive and manufacturing in the country less expensive,” said Pascual.
He said the Marcos administration aimed to make the Philippines an upper-middle-income country soon, with plans to develop a sustainable and innovative manufacturing industry.