Noy to attract more investments at APEC summit

BALI – As he attends the 21st Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ forum here, President Aquino will take the opportunity again to convince his fellow state leaders to invest in the Philippines.

“As always, the President is going to take every opportunity to meet with world leaders and the international business community to push for investments in the Philippines,” Secretary Ricky Carandang told Manila-based reporters in a briefing.

It is the fourth time Aquino is attending the APEC forum. He also attended the summit in Japan (2010), Hawaii (2011) and Vladivostok (2012).

Aquino will also fly to Brunei next week for the 23rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

Carandang, who heads the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, said world leaders should take a second look at Manila as a good investment site, following a series of positive reviews by credit rating agencies.

“We are going to be showing the reforms that we have undertaken over the last three years that bore fruit in terms of increased confidence in the Philippine economy and the management of the economy,” he said.

The Palace official stressed the need for a bigger push for investments, noting that targets were not reached even though the economy is on an upswing.

“As you know, we’ve seen rapid growth in the last three years but we are not happy that the growth has not been as inclusive as we want,” he said.

“There are always good prospects (for investments). We’re going to talk more about it in broad strokes,” he said, citing the radical reforms instituted in the Bureau of Customs.

He said Aquino, who is arriving here today, is expected to highlight the reforms implemented by his three-year-old administration in a bid to weed out corruption in government.

APEC hosting

Aside from the official delegates, officials of various government agencies have come to this island-resort to observe in preparation for Manila’s hosting of the APEC in two years.

Carandang said security, trade, finance, tourism, health and communication officials are trying to learn the ropes on APEC hosting.

“We are learning a lot from our Indonesian friends. It’s important that we observe and learn from the Indonesian experience and that’s why we’ve been doing our best to sort of understand how they’re doing it,” he said.

“They’re not just observing, they’re also participating,” he said. “We have two years…We will be ready.”

Carandang said the government has prepared a “shortlist of events” for the 2015 APEC meeting.

At least eight cities and destinations were identified as possible venues for high-level meetings.

Foreign Undersecretary Laura del Rosario earlier said Metro Manila and Clark are among those under serious consideration for the Leaders’ Summit. She said the list would be evaluated again to ensure the venues’ readiness to host the meetings.