Marcos to Japanese businessmen: PH has ‘a lot more to offer’

TOKYO: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday wooed top Japanese businessmen to invest more in the Philippines saying it has “a lot more to offer” in terms of ease of doing business.

During his speech at the Philippine Business Opportunities Forum, the President said the Philippines has a strong macro-economy, liberal business policy and massive infrastructure development agenda to support the needs of foreign investors.

He said the Philippine government has removed major barriers to foreign investments through “landmark” legislations, such as the amended Foreign Investments Act and Public Service Act.

The President also noted that the Philippines has been undertaking massive infrastructure development initiatives, taking off from the efforts of the previous Duterte administration.

“Our demographic advantage –particularly our young, educated, hardworking, English-speaking workforce [that] is among the best in the world — puts us in a strong position on the global stage,” Marcos Jr. said at the forum.

“This complements Japan’s development strategy, given its older demographic, of tapping human resources from outside its borders to meet the labor requirements of its enterprises,” the President added.

This developed as the business matching event arranged by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for 85 Philippine companies yielded over 255 meetings with their Japanese counterparts, Marcos Jr. said.

The President noted that 114 businessmen accompanying him in his five-day working visit to Japan are into manufacturing, construction, real estate, retail, food service, trading, telecommunications, aviation, recruitment, mining and agribusiness.

The Chief Executive expressed hope that these can result in enhanced synergies and new opportunities.

“And in the morning of the first day, our Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Pascual reported that the business matching event that DTI arranged for 85 Philippine companies yielded more than 255 meetings with Japanese counterparts,” Marcos Jr. said in his remarks during the high-power luncheon and networking event by leading Japanese business groups.

“In the afternoon, our delegates also visited a facility in Odaiba that was built by a company that began as a startup and today builds ultra-compact space crafts for comet explorations,” the President said.

On top of forging new connections in business, Filipino delegates are on a mission to listen, to observe, to learn and then act on opportunities and new knowledge, he said.

He expressed optimism that beyond profit and commerce, these partnerships will extend to lifelong friendships, which will promote and encourage the deepening and the strengthening of the ties between Japan and the Philippines

The Marcos administration, he said, is making it easier for private investors to engage in infrastructure initiatives, the chief executive added, noting that the government has revised the implementing rules and regulations of the Build-Operate-Transfer law to improve the financial viability of public-private partnership projects.