Last June 14, the Department of Science and Technology – Metals Industry Research and Development Center (DOST-MIRDC) inaugurated the Philippines’ first and world-class additive manufacturing hub.
It’s called the Advanced Manufacturing Center or AMCen. As per DOST, it’s a top-of-the-line manufacturing facility with a state-of-the-art prototyping laboratory that aims to increase the technological readiness, innovative capacity, and business sophistication of the Philippines’ manufacturing sector.

Fortunato T. de la Peña, DOST secretary, said that AMCen aims to be the Center of Excellence and the top premier hub for additive manufacturing.
In a statement, the secretary said that it’s their department’s long-term vision to provide world-class scientific, technological, and innovative solutions that could lead to a better quality of life and higher productivity that could benefit the people of the Philippines.
The department envisions that by 2022, the Philippines will be the leading science, technology, and innovation hub in the ASEAN region. Creating the top-of-the-line AMCen will help them achieve that goal.
De la Peña said that the AMCen construction had a budget of USD10 million (around Php480 million), which also included the Materials Development Laboratory of the DOST-Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI).
The secretary also emphasized the role of Additive Manufacturing in achieving the department’s goal to improve the Philippines’ competitiveness. He said that this would help the country join global players in partaking of opportunities brought about by the fourth industrial revolution, a.k.a Industry 4.0.
He added that building the AMCen is just the beginning. What they will use it for to discover new things is what’s exciting. It shall help the country to gain more trained engineers, scientists, and skilled technicians — professionals that can discover breakthroughs in innovative additive manufacturing technologies, processes, products, and materials.
The department expressed its commitment to continuously work with AM consultants, universities, and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) to develop training materials and curricula for different learning levels — from high school to graduate students.
AMCen can help accelerate production time by shortening the prototyping stage. This will also help them create more complex designs more shortly and efficiently.
With the help of AMCen, the Philippines is expected to create sophisticated technologies and products in the aerospace field and health and medical services, defense, automotive, biotechnology, semiconductors, and electronics.