Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos —AFP FILE PHOTO
President Marcos’ nine official trips over the past eight months have yielded P3.48 trillion in investments pledges, according to Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual.
Pascual revealed the amount in a meeting with the President and presidential adviser on investment and economic affairs Frederick Go, who is also president and chief executive officer of developer Robinsons Land.
During the meeting, Pascual said a total of 116 projects, worth $62.926 billion or P3.48 trillion, were generated from his foreign trips.
According to Pascual, the Philippine government reaped $8.48 billion (P468.96 billion) in Indonesia, $6.54 billion (P361.67 billion) in Singapore, $3.847 billion (P212.74 billion) in the United States, $4.62 billion (P255.53 billion) in Thailand, $2.20 billion (P121.68 billion) in Belgium, $24.239 billion (P1.34 trillion) in China and $13 billion (P719 billion) in Japan.
Details of MOUs, LOIs
In a video message released by the Presidential Communications Office, the President said “we are starting to go into the details” of all the memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and letters of intent (LOIs) signed during his official trips abroad.
The Palace press office released the video as the President’s detractors criticized his foreign trips after he spent a weekend in Singapore in October and attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month.
The President has made nine official trips, excluding the weekend in Singapore, since he assumed office in June. Three of the trips were state visits (Indonesia, Singapore and China) while the rest were working visits that coincided with multilateral meetings, like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, that any president would be obliged to attend.
“I can already report that some of the MOUs that we signed in Indonesia and in Singapore already have results. And in fact, I think in the next couple of weeks, we will be starting to inaugurate some of these projects already,” the President said.
P1.5T projects confirmed
Out of the P3.48 trillion, the Palace said $4.349 billion or P239 billion have materialized with the companies already in the various stages of implementation of their projects in the country.
The Palace added that projects worth $29.712B, or P1.7 trillion, have existing MOUs or LOIs while confirmed projects worth $28.863, or P1.5 trillion, were already in the planning stage.
“And the next item is going to be, we will have to converge all of the different agencies of government so that we are working off the same plan. That is what we will do because we have to strike while the iron is hot,” Mr. Marcos said.
He pointed out that there were many things that should be resolved, particularly rules and regulations that “are not investor-friendly” but he did not identify these regulations.
“We’re moving very quickly to, as I say, make sure that while the Philippines is still top of mind of these investors that we immediately explore those opportunities and take advantage of the contacts that we made during these trips,” he said.