Shipbuilding holds potential to employ 100,000 – ambassador

LARGE-SCALE shipbuilding in the Philippines has the potential to create 100,000 skilled jobs, Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin said.

- By Justine Irish D. Tabile Reporter

"We have this great shipbuilding initiative, which is aimed at bringing large-scale shipbuilding back to the Philippines," Mr. Mellbin told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on Wednesday.

"We're very excited about that. We believe we can create maybe up to 100,000 jobs in the Philippines through shipbuilding. This is the most important initiative we have. And it will also bring new kinds of technology to the Philippines," he added.

He said the Philippines remains an attractive destination for shipbuilding due to its skilled labor and geographical location, serving as an alternative to shipbuilding in China.

"We actually have several Danish companies that are here either to demonstrate their skills, to share their technology, or actually to cooperate with Filipino companies on building ships here in the Philippines," he said.

"On the naval side, we have a shipbuilding company looking at the possibility of building ships together with our Filipino partners," he added.

However, he said the country needs to take more steps to attract more investment.