CEBU, Philippines — The economic team of the Marcos administration is seeking to encourage more Singapore-based firms to come and do business in the Philippines as the government forecasts continued strong recovery moving forward.
Economic managers are in Singapore today (Thursday) to hold another round of its Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) to provide insights on the latest economic developments, government spending priorities, infrastructure programs, and recent reforms in the country.
This is the second PEB in Singapore under the Marcos administration.
Led by the Department of Finance, the PEB is a platform for the economic team to brief international business and financial communities on the latest developments concerning the country’s economic performance, investment opportunities, and the administration’s development plan.
This is also expected to result in foreign direct, fixed income and equities market investors, as well as infrastructure players.
According to the economic team, the first PEB in Singapore last year resulted in $6.5 billion worth of investment pledges, on top of resources in the transportation sector for the manufacturing of electronic tricycles valued at $5 billion.
It also includes investments in renewable energy through floating solar panels generating energy to power communities amounting to $1.2 billion.
Finance chief Benjamin Diokno will be joined by Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila.
Diokno will present an overview of the country’s economic performance and key economic liberalization reforms to encourage foreign investments in different sectors of the country.
Pangandaman, on the other hand, will discuss priority expenditures over the six-year term of the administration, while Balisacan will tackle infrastructure investment and development.
Dakila will brief investors on the performance and outlook of the monetary, external and financial sectors in the country.
Aside from the PEB, the economic team will have meetings with DBS Bank Ltd., HSBC Bank, and Singapore’s second minister for finance and national development, Indranee Rajah.
At the start of this year, the economic team kicked off the PEB in Germany, UK and the US. Last year, it held PEBs in Singapore, New York and Washington.