PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., is optimistic that there would be more jobs generated from the expanded petrochemical industry in Batangas.

Marcos made the remark at the inauguration of the JG Summit Olefins which expanded their manufacturing facility.

It housed the first and only naphtha cracker plant in the country.

“It is directly and indirectly employing 6,200 individuals. You are a major contributor to an industry that is forecasted to enrich our economy by P215 billion next year,” Marcos said in his speech.

Marcos said that he believes that the facility produces ''ends up in the packaging of the food we eat, in the clothes we wear, in the appliances in our homes, in the cars we drive, and in the electronic gadgets that we use to chronicle our daily lives.''

''It is an upstream industry that feeds many enterprises and supplies many other manufacturing concerns. It is among the lynchpins of our industrialization, a vital link in moving up the value chain, and guarantees the supply of a critical production ingredient,'' Marcos said.

It will be recalled that the JG Summit Olefins Corporation complex, which initially started with polyethylene and polypropylene polymers manufacturing in 1998, has continuously expanded its facilities over the years.

It actually produces the olefin raw materials ethylene and propylene used as feedstock by its downstream polyethylene and polypropylene polymer plants.