Photo by BBCnews
By Kate McGeown/BBC News – A shot rings out from a factory on the outskirts of the Philippines’ second-biggest city, Cebu.
But this isn’t an all-too-frequent drive-by killing or an argument that has become violent.
The sound is from a testing range at Shooters Arms, the country’s second-largest gun factory.
Shooters Arms produces about 20,000 pistols and shotguns every year, 85% of which are sold abroad – mainly to the US, Canada, Italy and Thailand.
Operations manager Romel de Leon has big plans – he wants to expand into new markets in Eastern Europe and even South America.
His business has a lot of competitive advantages. He has low labour costs and a highly skilled workforce using a mix of specialised machines and painstaking manual precision to produce high-quality weapons.
He also has a lucrative local market. Filipinos love their guns – even the president is an enthusiast – and the national police say there are 1.2 million registered firearms in the country.
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