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Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Corp. will hire 24,000 more
Filipino workers for its Subic and Misamis Oriental plants, the
government announced on Tuesday.
At present, Hanjin Philippines Inc., the
corporation’s main office in the Philippines, employs 16,000
workers.
During a meeting with Hanjin Philippines
President Jong Shup Shim, President Gloria Arroyo lauded the
company’s billion-dollar investment in its Subic shipyard, and the
additional multi-billion investment in a new facility in Misamis
Oriental, which would make the Philippines the fourth-largest
shipbuilder in the world.
Jong later told reporters that starting
September, Hanjin would begin local production of ship components
that they normally import from South Korea for the assembly of work
at Subic.
Jong estimated that the company would be able to
manufacture $29-million worth of locally produced components for the
first year, and he expressed confidence that this amount would
increase to $57 million next year.
Jong said the company would make the ships
produced at the Hanjin shipyard in Subic, entirely and proudly,
Philippine-made.
Medal of Merit
As this developed, President Arroyo conferred
the Presidential Medal of Merit on the former president Hanjin
Philippines Inc., Jong Shup Shim, for making that firm one of the
world’s largest shipbuilding conglomerates and for his
contribution to the shipbuilding industry in the Philippines.
Jong was also credited for influencing Hanjin
Heavy Industries and Construction Corp., to put up a shipbuilding
facility in the Subic Freeport Zone in Zambales.
The ceremony was held on Jeju Island, South
Korea, at the sidelines of the 20th Anniversary of Asean and
Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit. Asean is the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, a regional bloc of 10 countries that
includes the Philippines.
More hirings
Some 600 Filipino seamen were hired daily,
despite the global economic crisis, Giovanni Lopez, vice president
of the Luneta Seafarer’s Center (LSC), said also on Tuesday. He
added that the demand for Filipinos seafarers even increased, and if
there were layoffs, they would normally be the last to go —after
other foreign workers.
On average, some 1,000 jobs were available daily
at the popular seamen’s hub on Kalaw Street, Manila, where 112
manning agencies offer jobs to the thousands of Filipino seafarers
who troop to the center everyday.
“Over the last two years, the global maritime
industry’s choice for Filipino seafarers continues, and it will
never face a bleak future if you look into the official running
count of available jobs being offered to them everyday,” he said.
Lopez also said the Philippines was the biggest
source of maritime workers in the world, and he believed that the
demand for Filipino seafarers would “not be dampened in a big
way.”
He added that until 2012—when more modern
vessels would be set to sail—the international maritime industry
would be needing ship captains, marine deck officers, chief
engineers, cooks, stewards and other maritime crew.
Filipino seafarers comprise 35 percent to 40
percent of the global maritime manpower.
-- Angelo S. Samonte And Bernice Camille V. Bauzon
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