FINANCE Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno urged Singaporean investors to do business in the Philippines, saying now is the best time to do so as the country’s economic prospects are “bright and promising.”
Speaking before the business and finance communities in Singapore, Diokno said the Philippine economy grew by 7.4 percent in the second quarter of this year despite the ongoing risks posed by rising commodity prices and current geopolitical risks.
Diokno, who heads the government’s Economic Development Cluster, also vowed that the administration is committed to establishing an “even more business and investment-friendly environment” in the country.
“As we rebuild our economy and gun for rapid, broad-based growth in the next six years, we have opened our doors even wider for mutually beneficial investments. This is why we believe that this is the best time to do business in the Philippines,” he said during Marcos Jr.’s administration’s first international Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) on Wednesday.
“The country’s solid macroeconomic fundamentals enabled us to withstand the headwinds and mount a strong recovery. This is the foundation on which the Marcos administration commits to build a robust economy for a faster, greener, and more inclusive growth that benefits Filipinos,” he added.
Singapore has been the Philippines’s top source of foreign direct investments (FDI) and the country’s sixth largest trading partner. It is also the Philippines’s third biggest source of Overseas Filipino remittances.
The country’s investment-ready environment bolstered by the calibrated reopening of the economy and the enactment of several key structural reforms enabled the continuous climb of investor confidence in the Philippines, Diokno said.
Last year, net FDI inflows reached a record high of $10.5 billion. For the first five months of this year, the country’s net FDI inflows reached $4.2 billion, up by 19 percent from the previous year.
Moving forward, Diokno vowed that the administration will “faithfully implement” the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE).
CREATE provides an immediate corporate income tax rate cut of 10 percentage points for domestic, micro, small, and medium enterprises and a 5-percentage point rate cut for all other corporations.
Likewise, CREATE provides a “generous” incentives package that is performance-based, time-bound, targeted, and transparent for businesses that undertake activities considered a priority by the government.
Apart from CREATE, Diokno said the passage of economic liberalization laws widened the space for international firms to invest in previously protected sectors and form joint ventures with Filipino companies.
These include the amendments to Retail Trade Liberalization Act, Public Service Act, and Foreign Investment Act.
“Foreign investors are now welcome to bring their capital into the country, especially in the fields of telecommunications, airports, toll roads, and shipping,” he said.
To complement these structural reforms, Diokno said the economic team’s Medium-Term Fiscal Framework will serve as the blueprint to reduce the fiscal deficit, promote fiscal sustainability, and enable robust economic growth.
Joining Diokno in the panel discussion were Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Felipe Medalla, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Department of Budget and Management Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman, and SM Investments Corp. Vice Chair Teresita Sy-Coson.
The PEB in Singapore was conducted in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy Singapore and the Philippine Trade and Investment Centre Singapore, together with partner banks, namely, BoFa Securities, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, SMBC Nikko, Standard Chartered Bank, and UBS.