P-Noy now using '5 Rs' to lure investors

XIAMEN CITY – President Aquino is now using “Five Rs” to lure investors to come to the country – right project, right cost, right quality, right people and right on time.

“In this manner, we will have contracts that endure and relationships that flourish and last. What we are both after is to build firm foundations for the future,” the President said during the Philippines-Fujian business conference here.

Last Friday, the President told businessmen in Shanghai of his decision to order a review or renegotiation of onerous foreign-funded projects.

He said he also ordered the cancellation of the contract of the Belgian firm that bagged the Laguna Lake dredging project, even if they threatened to sue the Philippine government.

“I said, sue me, better that you get mad at me than the people who helped me to sit in this post and are expecting me to do the right things for them,” he said.

In his speech, the President cited his ancestral roots that could be traced in Hongjian village in Zhangzhou City in this province, “where my great-great-grandfather grew up.”

“Our family is not alone in finding ancestral ties to this province: 85 percent of Chinese-Filipinos can trace their roots back to Fujian. For many Chinese-Filipinos, it inspires a sense of historic awe whenever they set foot on this land.”

“For me, this is a rare opportunity of discovery: to see the land from which so many daring, driven, successful families came from. I hope to imbibe the virtues of the hardy, enterprising, and committed individuals whose achievements honor both the Philippines and China, particularly in terms of excellence in business,” he said.

The President said he would like to balance the commercial relations between the Philippines and China as Filipino foreign direct investments in China, for example, total $2.8 billion while Chinese investments in the Philippines total only $500 million.

“I believe by means of visits such as this one, we can begin to balance the equation,” he said.