Total consolidated investments generated by foreign visits of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. have reached $72.18 billion, or about P4 trillion, according to Kim Lokin, undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Lokin told a televised interview the investments are in various stages of development but 20 projects worth $1.2 billion or about P66 billion have so far been greenlighted and registered with either the Board of Investments or the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
These projects are in manufacturing, information technology-business process management (IT-BPM), renewable energy (RE), data centers and telecommunication.
Lokin said 9 of these projects are operational (investment stage 6) as of December 14 with total investment value $398.17 million while 9 others worth $790.58 million are nearing operations (investment stage five).
Lokin expressed hope other projects will be realized in five years.
According to Lokin, choosing destinations of presidential visits which covered Asean, US, Europe and other Asian countries took into account several criteria.
“First, we consider if these investments are part of the 8-point economic agenda that will bring higher value or higher service jobs because we want investments that can upskill and reskill our labor. Second, for example in Europe and the US, we get investments in IT-BPM and electronics and semiconductor industries because we want to secure the Philippines’ status in the global value chain,” Lokin said.
She added in visits to Japan, China, US, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Singapore, the Philippines gained pledges across many sectors.
According to Lokin, the 18 projects ongoing and near completion will generate 224,200 jobs of which 41 percent or 91,957 jobs are in IT-BPM including startups, artificial intelligence, metaverse, retail and research and development.
Around 32 percent or 71,899 jobs are in manufacturing in cement, integrated steel, semiconductor and electronics, automotive, printer, processing and wire harness.
Around 23,452 jobs or 10.5 percent of the pie are in infrastructure, transportation and logistics such as aviation, data centers, construction, land development, real estate, water and waste water treatment.
Energy accounts for 9.4 percent or 21,020 jobs in blue economy, RE, marine RE, water production aquaculture, and traditional energy and waste- to- energy
Agriculture gets 2.6 percent or 5,760 jobs in agriculture such as dairy and agro processing.
