Favorable positioning for the reopening of the global economy — that’s how President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. wrapped up his participation last week at the World Economic Forum (WEF), a high-profile annual gathering of state and industry leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
As the lone participating ASEAN head of state, he met with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva who shared with him the IMF’s assessment that the Philippines has been an “exceptionally well-performing country” despite the extreme shocks brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The President performed his avowed task to persuade more leading global companies to invest in the country and emulate those firms that have attained considerable success in the country. Despite somber forecasts on the world’s economic outlook for 2023, he adopted an optimistic profile. He pointed out that the country’s employment rate has exceeded pre-pandemic levels, citing the rejuvenation of micro- small and medium-scale enterprises while the industrial sector demonstrated its resilience in overcoming the paralysis and inertia that slowed the country’s economic engine.
Specifically, he lauded the business process outsourcing sector that deftly shifted to work-from-home arrangements at the height of the contagion as well as the mining and semiconductor industries that bannered Philippine exports. Moreover, the continuous stream of remittances from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) kept their families afloat as the country’s economy plunged into a deep recession.
While the IMF forecast for global economic growth in 2023 is at 2.7 percent, the Philippines is poised to grow by seven percent due to its “strong macroeconomic fundamentals, fiscal discipline, structural reforms and liberalization of key sectors instituted over the years,” the President told his audience at the WEF.
The President emphasized that attaining a higher level of foreign participation in the country’s economic growth involves a painstaking process of wooing foreign investors and ensuring that the infrastructure — including the entire raft of government regulations both at the national and local level — are congruent with ease-of-doing-business imperatives.
At least nine international companies manifested their willingness to invest or expand their businesses in the Philippines. Morgan Stanley also bared plans to open a Manila office. Dr. Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman, also invited the Philippines to participate in the activities of a center for new technologies that serves as an incubator and launching pad for innovative projects.
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Philippine business leaders representing the largest conglomerates joined the President in Davos to reinforce his pitch for Philippine investments. The delegation included Aboitiz Group CEO and Private Sector Advisory Sector lead convenor Sabin Aboitiz, Kevin Andrew Tan of Alliance Global, Jaime Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Group, Lance Gokongwei of JG Summit Holdings, Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp., Teresita Sy-Coson of SM Investments, and Enrique Razon of International Container Terminal Services Inc.
This demonstration of public-private partnership for promoting the country’s economic development bodes well for a whole-of nation endeavor in achieving great strides toward sustainable, long-term growth.
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