CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga - Budget and Management Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad is expected to grace the Yokohama Tire Philippines, Inc. (YTPI) groundbreaking ceremony on May 23, 2011 to officially start of the construction of manufacturing plant expansion with 50 billion yen investment.

According to Angelo "Sony" Lopez Jr., manager of Public Affairs Office, Clark Development Corporation (CDC) disclosed yesterday that ceremony serves as the formal step of YTPI’s plan to expand the manufacturing plant perimeters.

This company decision is part of YTPI’s implementation of the third phase of the Grand Design 100 (GD 100) the medium-term management plan set on 2012, Lopez said.

Lopez reveals that YTPI is one of the top Clark investor inside the Special Economic Freeport Zone and also employs more than 3,000 Filipino employees respectively, adding the 3rd expansion will also to create more jobs and increase of production as well.

In this significant activities, Abad will be the guest of honor and speaker who represent President Aquino to lead the YTPI in the gracing the new expansion along others guest- Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Toshinao Urabe and Yokohama Rubber Corporation (YRC) President and Representative Director Tadanobu Nagumo.

Also present in the ceremony is YTPI President and CEO Tetsuya Kuze and Clark Development Corporation (CDC) President and CEO Atty. Felipe Antonio Remollo.

Upon completion, the extension of YTPI’s manufacturing plant will result to a significant increase in production capacity. By 2017, tires manufactured in YTPI will amount to approximately 17 million tires a year (50,000 tires/day) compared to the current production of 7 million tires a year (21,000 tires/day).

The expansion also leads to an addition of job opportunities in the community, making the total working population projected to five thousand employees by 2017.