“INVEST in “Asia’s fastest rising star.”
This was how President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. pitched the country to Singaporean investors during the economic briefing held by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in Singapore last Wednesday.
In his keynote address for the event, Marcos highlighted the country’s readiness “to outperform its regional peers” with its planned investments in digital and public infrastructure, and transportation developments.
Other sectors with potential growth, he said, will be the agriculture industry and the tourism industry.
“To this end, we are pursuing the country’s first-ever medium-term fiscal framework, which will widen our fiscal space to allow for continued investments in public infrastructure and human capital development,” Marcos said.
“This strategy will enable us to reduce poverty sharply and upgrade the country to upper middle-income status,” he added.
Greater participation
THE President also said the passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act or CREATE, and the economic liberalization measures will allow “wider participation” of foreign investors in local industries.
“We have expanded the space for foreign investments in and joint venture opportunities for industry players employing cutting-edge technologies,” Marcos said.
“We invite strategic investors from the international community to take part in the Philippines’ economic resurgence,” he added.
Marcos’s speech was followed by the presentation of members of the economic cluster of his Cabinet.
Signed agreements
SECURING additional foreign investments were among the priorities of Marcos in his State Visit in Singapore, which was concluded last Wednesday.
During the trip he also signed several memorandum of understanding (MOU) which strengthened Philippine-Singapore cooperation on Personal Data Protection, Counter-Terrorism, water collaboration, and the development of the New Clark City.
Press Secretary Beatrix “Trixie” Cruz-Angeles said an agreement between the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and Ministry of Health of Singapore for the deployment of additional Filipino healthcare workers was also signed. “The government of Singapore was pleased with the service of our healthcare workers especially during the Covid-19 pandemic so they want to hire over 3,000 Filipino healthcare workers through a government-to-government arrangement,” Angeles said in a Facebook post.