Government eyes $3.8 billion worth of investments, inflows

MANILA, Philippines - The government hopes to bring in roughly $3.8 billion worth of investments and inflows for lending to the private sector this year out of its participation in the forthcoming Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran is representing the Philippine government in the meeting slated on April 24 to 25 in Washington.

“We will promote the Philippines as a haven of growth and stability. What we want is to entice investments,” Beltran said.

Last year, the Philippines recorded $3.8 billion in investments and inflows for lending to the private sector but Beltran said this is still lower than the average amount generated by the country from 2005 to 2007 of roughly $5 to $6 billion.

This year, Beltran said it’s possible that investments would go back to the $5 to $6 billion but not immediately.

“It will come gradually,” Beltran said.

Last year, the Philippine economy grew by 0.9 percent, lower than the 3.8 percent recorded in 2008 because of the global financial turmoil and the twin typhoons that struck last year.

This year, the government expects the economy to grow anywhere from 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent on hopes that global recovery would continue.

Beltran said during the Spring Meetings of the IMF, the government would be holding bilateral and multilateral meetings with different countries along the direction of attracting investments and other inflows for the private sector.

He said the Spring Meetings are likely to center on how countries can sustain recovery and how they can prepare for a timely exit of their stimulus programs.

Each Spring, the joint IMF-World Bank Development Committee and the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee hold meetings to discuss progress on the work of the IMF and the Bank, the IMF said.

The meetings are usually focused on a range of issues related to poverty reduction, international economic development and finance.

Around these meetings, the IMF and the World Bank organize a number of forums to facilitate the interaction of governments and IMF-Bank staff with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), journalists, and the private sector, the IMF said.

The IMF also said that about 10,000 people attend the Annual Meetings, including about 3,500 members of delegations from the member countries of the IMF and the World Bank, roughly 1,000 representatives of the media, and more than 5,000 visitors and special guests drawn primarily from private business, the banking community, and civil society organizations (CSO) — such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, and think tanks.