Samsung Electronics plans to invest $1bn in a 30-hectare microchip plant in the Philippines. Construction of the plant will start within a year.

The plant, which will be located at the Clark Special Economic Zone, ends almost a year of intense negotiations with the Philippine government. The negotiations began last year after Texas Instruments also announced plans for a $1bn plant in Clark. The talks were further delayed by the resignation of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-Hee who was earlier this year involved in a tax-evasion scandal .

The conglomerate already has two operations in the country: Samsung Electronics Philippines Manufacturing Corporation (Sephil) and Samsung Electronics Philippines Corporation (Sepco). It is on an expansion drive in southeast Asia, and recently started production at its newly built silicon wafer plant in Singapore.