Press Release
                         Contact:-
                         Aston Bridgman
                         NEC Corporation
                         TEL    :81-3-3798-6511
                         FAX    :81-3-3457-7249
                         E-mail : Aston_Bridgman@HO-PRD.ccgw.nec.co.jp

*****For immediate use February 4, 1998

NEC Officially Opens Leading-Edge Electronic Components Plant

NEC-CPI is NEC's second electronics components plant outside Japan, after NEC Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and is located in the Light Industry and Science Park 2 in Calamba, Laguna, near Manila. Built on a 110,000 square meter site, the plant has 20,000 square meters of floor space and is constructed to be extremely environmentally-friendly, employing the most up-to-date disaster avoidance designs.

The new plant, of which construction began in March 1996, employs approximately 800 people. It manufactures highly integrated printed wiring boards (PWBs) of between 4~6 layers and 3~5 lines per channel, together with power relay products. Monthly, production capacity for PWBs is 13,000 square meters and relay production capability is 1.2 million units. NEC has already invested 1.9 billion Pesos, and provided 1.174 billion Pesos as capital, in establishing NEC-CPI.

Additional Investment, New Jobs

NEC and NEC-CPI also announced today that they would make a further investment of 1 billion Pesos in the new plant over the next three years to raise monthly production capacities to 20,000 square meters of PWBs and 3.5 million automotive relays.

The decision to make the investment was made after seeing the substantial orders NEC-CPI is enjoying as the first company to begin volume production of highly integrated PWBs in South-East Asia, and the strong demand from manufacturers in Europe and North America for power relays. This is expected to result in 500 new jobs, raising the number of employees to 1,300.

Background

NEC's efforts to contribute to the Philippines' economic development began in the 1950s with the construction of the country's communications infrastructure. Technology transfers, followed by the establishment of NEC Technologies Philippines, Inc. in Cebu in 1989 to manufacture transmission equipment, and the sub-contract production of computer peripherals such as floppy disks and hard disks are positive examples of NEC's commitment to local manufacturing,.

Furthermore, in 1996, NEC established a wholly-owned sales subsidiary, NEC Philippines, Inc. to expand from its plant construction export business to the personal computer and cellular communications equipment businesses.

Through these activities, NEC has invested an overall total of 4.8 billion Pesos in the Philippines and has a total of 7,300 group employees. With today's announcement of an additional 1 billion Pesos investment over the next three years, that total will increase to 5.8 billion Pesos.

With the opening of the new plant, NEC and NEC-CPI aim to support the development of multimedia and of a global strategic manufacturing base which in turn further contributes to the future of the Philippines.

For Profile of NEC Components Philippines,Inc. and NEC Group offices in the Philippines, please see the attached sheet.

• Sheet1:Profile of NEC Components Philippines,Inc.
• Sheet2:NEC Group offices in the Philippines

***