Following its strong economic performance, the Philippines has been included in the “VIP Club” in Southeast Asia along with Vietnam and Indonesia, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.
The President, in a separate news and video release issued by Presidential Communications Office (PCO) on Sunday, said economic and business leaders who attended World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland had tagged the Philippines as part of the “VIP Club,” or a list of Southeast Asian countries with best-performing economies.
Marcos said his attendance to WEF served as an excellent platform to showcase the Philippine economy’s recovery and strong performance “not only in the Asia-Pacific but in the whole world.”
He said global leaders, economic experts and business executives and foreign investors who he had met while in Davos expressed their intent to explore business opportunities in the Philippines. These included WEF founder and chairman Emeritus Klaus Schwab with whom he discussed possible partnerships and collaborations that would help the Philippines sustain equitable and inclusive growth, and provide a better quality of life for Filipinos.
Marcos also met World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, World Bank managing director for Operations Axel Van Trotsenburg, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva, and former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“The main theme in this entire forum (is) how we bring back cooperation in a fragmented world. And we are seen to play a part in that and especially as a member state of Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and as a leading economy in Asia,” he added.
At the WEF, the President shared his administration’s policies, including the Philippine Development Plan, the eight-Point Socioeconomic Agenda, and “various other policies and legislations that spotlight the economic reforms of the Philippines that have led to its sustained growth.”
Marcos also talked of the proposed sovereign wealth fund that is pending in the Senate.
“I took the opportunity as well to consult with our friends and partners in Davos on the sovereign wealth fund as a means for us to diversify our income sources, and to generate various welfare effects to the Filipino people, while recognizing that this is a collaborative work with experts and our lawmakers so that its final form is what we intend it to be,” he said.
Meanwhile, a news release of the PCO yesterday quoted Aleem Siddiqui Guiapal, deputy director-general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority), as saying the agency expects more foreign direct investments to register this year following the President’s successful trip to the WEF.
Guiapal said investments approved by the PEZA jumped 103 percent to P140.7 billion for the last quarter of 2022 following Marcos’ several foreign trips late last year including his attendance to the Asean and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summits.
“Recently, the investments (commitment) last year materialized. For example, if you’re familiar with the new investment by Zeco — this is a company in Switzerland – that invested in a TECO (industrial park) in Pampanga,” he added.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo attributed the increased investments or interests to the Philippines to the “game-changing reforms” pursued by the Marcos administration including the amendment to the implementing rules and regulations of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 to allow 100 percent foreign capital in renewable energy projects.
