Improving the investment climate in the Philippines is one task that a chief executive must do to boost the economy. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and our lawmakers did just that. Mr. Marcos’s recent successful state visits are proof that the Philippines is ready to compete with our Asian neighbors and get a bigger slice of the investment pie.
Plugging the gap could not be done overnight. As a middle-income economy with a population of over 110 million, we have growing requirements for food, fuel, raw materials, capital equipment and consumer goods, most of which are imported. At the same time, we could not afford to keep importing all these items, lest we deplete our foreign exchange reserves and hurt our local currency.
Many of our Southeast Asian neighbors like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and recently Vietnam have drawn more investments than the Philippines. Several agencies reported encouraging numbers recently. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority registered a 54-percent increase in investments approvals to P12.537 billion in the first quarter of 2023 from a year earlier. Once realized, these investment projects are expected to add $616.585 million in exports and create 5,236 direct jobs.
The Board of Investments, the lead investment promotion agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, upgraded its targetThe agency received investment pledges of more than P400 billion in the first six weeks of 2023 and is following up on potential investment leads of P344 billion. If we could replicate the success of the IT-BPM sector in other segments of the economy, we would definitely raise our exports, while generating jobs and livelihood opportunities for millions of young Filipinos.