Marcos’ trips reap $23.6B in investment pledges

FROM FILE PHOTOS

Malacañang on Friday announced that President Marcos’ foreign trips during his first six months in office yielded $23.6 billion in investment pledges. Citing data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Press Undersecretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil said the President’s visits to Indonesia, Singapore, the United States, Cambodia and Thailand brought billions of pesos in investments “as the administration gears toward aggressively attracting more foreign businesses to come to the Philippines.”

In his trips to Indonesia and Singapore, Mr. Marcos brought home $14.36 billion, or P804.78 billion, in investment pledges, which are seen to aid the country’s economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

His working visit to the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September generated close to $4 billion worth of investments.

During his trip to Cambodia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit, Mr. Marcos urged Cambodian business leaders to invest in the country, pointing out the 7.6 percent economic growth in the third quarter of 2022.

P9.8B from EU

In November, Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand pledged to increase its $2-billion investment in the Philippines after the President met with officials of the largest private company in Thailand during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Bangkok.

In his trip to Brussels in Belgium in December to attend the Asean-EU Commemorative Summit, the President said he reaped about P9.8 billion worth of investment pledges.

Mr. Marcos said the investment pledges showed that the confidence in the country’s business environment was high. “I am pleased to announce that European business confidence in the Philippines is high as evidenced by the expansion plans of European companies that we met,” he said upon his arrival on Dec. 15.