Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 12) — Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno is confident that the government’s move to pump up its spending for infrastructure projects would make the Philippines more attractive to foreign investors.
During his keynote speech at the Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Diokno said the national government sees infrastructure spending as the “front and center of our growth strategy.”“We are committed to reverse the decades-long underinvestment in infrastructure: from 2001 to 2015, average infrastructure spending was only at 2% of GDP,” he explained.Through reviving its partnership with the private sector, the current administration vowed “to sustain high infrastructure investment for the next six years,” the official added.He also said efforts would focus on upgrading energy, logistics, transportation, telecommunications, and water infrastructure in the country.“Now, the spectrum of industries that foreign investors can participate in has grown wider than ever before,” Diokno pointed out. “The economic liberalization measures that the Philippine government has enacted in recent years have opened up key high-growth sectors to international participation.He cited the amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA), Foreign Investments Act (FIA), and the Public Service Act (PSA) which relaxed restrictions to foreign investments in the country.For his part, Speaker Martin Romualdez assured foreign investors that the House of Representatives would back measures intended to support the local economy.“We are committed to passing more measures that the Marcos administration may need to further enhance investment in the Philippines aimed at improving the lives of Filipinos,” Romualdez said in a statement on Thursday.I urge foreign investors to stay the course with us and share the benefits of progress and development,” he added.Romualdez also said briefing American investors was a strategic move by the Philippine government as the US remains “a major source of investments and funding assistance.”
