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Hjayceelyn M. Quintana and Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding Delegation visited Jose C. Faustino Jr. in Quezon City.
Mary Karl Hala-Pujord, senior reporter
The shipbuilding skills of the Filipinos since time immemorial have been well-proven and have continued to the present, with a leading UAE shipbuilding company in the Middle East and North Africa expressing interest in increasing its Filipino workforce by half its total.
The Emirati company is Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding (ADSB) and its executives, led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Massey, are in the Philippines on a week-long business trip to Zambales and Cebu in Central Luzon Three shipyards in the province of Visayas. They also paid a courtesy visit to the new Secretary of Defense Jose C. Faustino Jr. at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City last Friday, August 12.
Located in the capital’s Mussafah Industrial Zone, ADSB is a public joint-stock company listed in the UAE, with Edge PJSC owning 40%; 10% provided by the Abu Dhabi government; and 50% by other individuals. It has been operating in the region and the rest of the world for the past 25 years. It specializes in the construction, repair, maintenance and refit of naval and merchant ships. Its company You Tube states that “Our shipbuilding capabilities include the construction of highly complex vessels for naval and commercial clients. From coastal warfare defense operations to patrol missions and even exclusive economic zone protection, our team has the capacity to advise and advise on vessels of all sizes. Service expertise and technical background.”
Hjayceelyn M. Quintana, Ambassador of the Philippines to the UAE, organized and led ADSB’s trip to the Philippines as part of the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines-Abu Dhabi (AUHPE) initiative to further expand the Philippines-United Arab Emirates diplomacy that began on the 48th The relationship goes back to August 19, 1974.
Quintana hopes to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the defense sector and sees shipbuilding cooperation as a core area that can be developed.
On February 21, 2021, the Office of the Philippine Defense and Armed Forces Attache officially opened at the AUHPE grounds, while a courtesy call before Acting Defense Secretary Faustino on August 12 facilitated the growing defense relationship between the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates .
During the briefing, ADSB officials revealed their major expansion plans, which will grow tenfold by 2024. Growth, they argue, will require “Filipino shipbuilding skills, from shipbuilders to welders.” CEO Massey said that with the projected growth, they want Filipinos to make up half of their total workforce.
Massey also said that the ADSB is now in a very good position to work with the Philippine Navy to support the modernization of the country’s defense.
Regarding the shipbuilding capabilities of the Philippines and the Philippines itself, Ambassador Quintana called the country “the fifth largest producer in the world and the largest producer in Southeast Asia.”
The March 19, 2022 online edition of The Manila Times, “How Shipbuilding Can Fuel PH Economic Growth,” cites 2019 data from the Economic Observatory, which “ranks the country as the world’s fifth-largest ship supplier (by tonnage). Calculations), and most ships are exported to Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Liberia and French Polynesia markets.” The Observatory of Economics Complexity is “the world’s leading data visualization tool for international trade.” ADSB delegation and Quintana visited Agila Subic Multi-Use Facilities (formerly Hanjin Shipyard) on the Redondo Peninsula, managed by US private equity firm Cerberus in Subic Bay, Zambales; west of Cebu City Tsuneishi Heavy Industries and Austal Philippines in West Cebu Industrial Park in Balamban Township, the 52-kilometer “Shipbuilding Capital of the Philippines”.
Historical documents include the “chronology” of the Italian Antonio Pigafetta, one of the survivors of the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation in the 1500s, as well as ancient ship boards and components, showing that shipbuilding is a booming industry. These islands—even before the accidental landing of Magellan and his crew on the outskirts of present-day Samar Island in the Eastern Visayas on March 16, 1521.
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