GMA reforms to attract foreign investments

SINGAPORE (AFP) — The Philippines will become more attractive to foreign investors as President Arroyo implements her tough economic reform package, Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar Purisima said here yesterday.

Purisima, who was speaking at a seminar on business prospects in the Philippines, declared the country was ready to welcome foreign investment following Mrs. Arroyo’s economic agenda outlined in a national address on Monday. "I can assure you that we are open for business," he said.

He said Mrs. Arroyo’s pledge on Monday to cut bureaucracy, as well as her appeals for Congress to pass eight revenue measures and a law on privatizing state-owned electric power assets, showed her administration was determined to get its economic act together. "I think we need to show the international financial community, to show the investment community that we are serious in getting our act right once and for all," he said.

Purisima said the President would not buckle as she pursued her reform agenda.

In her state of the nation address, the first to both houses of Congress since winning a six-year term in May elections, Mrs. Arroyo vowed to make the hard calls in an effort to fix the Philippines’ economic woes.

"Tough decisions will have to be made. It is going to be tough love from here on," Arroyo said, warning the upper-classes would feel the brunt of these reforms.

Declaring the nation’s budget deficit the most urgent problem, Arroyo said her administration would undertake reforms that would "raise or save P100 billion."