Marcos met with officials of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Investment and Economic Affairs (OPAIEA) to put together and follow through the different investment pledges signed during his trips abroad since he took office.
“So we’re starting to go into the details of all of those MOUs (memoranda of understanding) and LOIs (Letters of Intent) that people have seen us witnessing, mga pirma-pirma and exchanges from different countries,” he said in a video message.
“I can already report that some of the MOUs that we signed in Indonesia and in Singapore, mayroon ng resulta. And in fact, I think in the next couple of weeks, we will be starting to inaugurate some of these projects already,” he added.
DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual said Marcos’ trips abroad yielded a total of 116 projects worth US$62.926 billion or P3.48 trillion.
Of these pledges, US$8.48 billion were from Indonesia, US$6.54 billion from Singapore, US$3.847 billion from the United States, US$4.62 billion from Thailand, US$2.20 billion from Belgium, US$24.239 billion from China, and US$13 billion from Japan.
Pascual said US$4.349 billion or P239 billion worth of commitments have materialized with the companies in various stages of implementation of their projects in the country while projects worth around US$29.712B or P1.7 trillion already have existing MOU or LOI.
He said confirmed projects worth US$28.863 or P1.5 trillion are on the planning stage already.
Marcos said there are many things that should be resolved, particularly rules and regulations that are not investor-friendly.
He said they have listed down things posing problems to businesses that can hinder the deals.
“And the next item is going to be, we will have to converge all of the different agencies of government so that we are working off the same plan. ‘Yun ang gagawin natin because we have to strike while the iron is hot,” Marcos said.
“We’re moving very quickly to, as I say, make sure that while the Philippines is still top of mind of these investors that we immediately explore those opportunities and take advantage of the contacts that we made during these trips,” he added. (SunStar Philippines)