Cites favorable laws for foreign direct investments such as law allowing “full foreign ownership” in telco, transpo services
(Eagle News) – Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr., encouraged US investors to try doing business in the Philippines citing the very favorable conditions and conducing environment for foreign investments.
Speaking before the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the 65-year old Philippine leader cited various advantages of investing in the country, including legislation that allows full foreign ownership in telecommunication and transportation services.
Accompanied by a delegation from the private sector, including top Philippine businessmen and investors, as well as his administration’s economic team, Marcos Jr., stressed the country’s resilience to crises and the economy’s robust growth since last year.
He thanked the NYSE for the invitation to speak on their business forum on Monday, September 19, saying he considered it “an engagement of invaluable opportunity to share” how the country is “further opening up” its economy to accelerate recovery.
-Liberalizing PHL economy to attract foreign investments-
He said that the Philippines is bouncing back from the pandemic, and “has returned to its path towards upper-middle-income country status” that he said was achievable within the next few years.
“We are proud to share that we recently enacted policies to further liberalize our economy and welcome more foreign investment to our shores,” he said.
“First, we passed legislation to lower corporate income tax rates and rationalize fiscal incentives. Second, we reduced the minimum paid-up capital requirements for foreign retailers and foreign startups bringing in advanced new technology. And third, we now allow full foreign ownership of companies providing public services, such as telecommunications, shipping, air carriers, railways, subways, airports, and toll roads,” President Marcos Jr., explained.
Marcos Jr., said the country had adjusted many of its “ways of doing business at the behest of our friends in the United States and of the Americans businesses that are already in the Philippines” as he noted the importance of US as a trading partner.
“The US is our third largest trading partner and second major source of foreign direct investment applications in 2021,” he said.
-Areas for foreign investments in PHL cited-
The President encouraged the “private sector” to be a partner in the Philippines, and cited the areas for foreign investment in the country.
“We seek partnerships in many areas of our development agenda: in public infrastructure — such as mass transit systems, airports, toll roads; in public services; in digitalization initiatives; in the energy development agenda; in efforts to modernize agriculture; and in programs aimed
at strengthening our industries, to just name a few,” he said.
“For American businesses, we offer investment opportunities in areas such as information technology and business process management or IT-BPM; medical products and devices; electric vehicles and batteries; agribusiness; and telecommunications infrastructure and services.”
–PHL’s mostly young workforce is its major asset, says PBBM-
The Philippine leader said the country’s “workforce” is its major asset, and most of these are young, English proficient and technology-proficient.
“We are I believe the youngest country in Asia. And with the graying of other countries around the region, this gives us an advantage in terms of — I supposed the population dividend has been referred to before. It gives us an advantage in terms of the population dividend,” President Marcos Jr., explained.
“And they are ready to take up the cudgels, they are ready to work for the country, they are ready to do what needs to be done to bring the country forward,” he said.
“To international investors, the Philippines offers high-quality labor, a large consumer market, and a wide range of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives. At the same time, we remain committed to maintaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals providing a clear development roadmap,” he said.
-Transforming PHL economy and role of foreign direct investments-
Marcos said that he would “attempt to transform the economy.”
“And I used the word transform because it is my belief that the way to bring our economies back to the level of activity that we enjoyed before the pandemic, we have to understand that the global economy has changed and we have to position ourselves certainly to be able to take advantage of those changes to have a head start in the new economy that we are still, as of now, starting to form globally,” he said.
He said foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the country is an very important part of this.
“And when I speak of foreign investment, I speak especially of capital intensive investment because although we have our GDP, if we look at our GDP figures, a great deal of the contribution to GDP has been in our service sector,” the President said.
“And therefore, we think that it is manufacturing — the area of manufacturing where we can still do a better job. And this is one way the foreign direct investment, capital intensive investment is also something that we are going to actually to need for us to be able to achieve the targets that we have set for our economy, have set for our country,” he said.
“And it is going to be key as we are trying to — we are trying to define or determine the mix between loans and capital intensive investment. So the part that capital intensive investment plays is going to be a very important aspect of this transformation of our economy that I speak of,” he noted.
The President also cited the country’s “macroeconomic fundamentals” including the projection for growth of the country’s gross domestic product.
-PHL CEOs vouch for PBBM’s vision-
Before his speech, Sabin Aboitiz, the Convenor of the Private Sector Advisory Council, impressed upon the audience how President Marcos Jr., has galvanized top CEOs of the country to work for him voluntarily as part of the private sector advisory council because they believed in his ability and
vision.
“We in the business community believe in this vision and as our longtime allies and partners, we hope you will too,” Aboitiz said addressing the US investors.
After the event, President Marcos Jr., was invited to ring the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
(Eagle News Service)