By Billy Begas
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is doing a yeoman’s job in selling the Philippines as an investment destination to the participants of the World Economic Forum (WEF) being held in Davos, Switzerland.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who is part of the country’s official delegation to WEF, said Marcos is seizing all the opportunities to tell the international community about the success of the Philippines.
“No less than Borge Brende, the President of the WEF, recognized the sustained effort President Marcos displayed in this forum to showcase the Philippines’ remarkable story and outline the path his administration is taking to welcome more foreign investments into our country,” Romualdez said.
Romualdez is referring to Brende’s comments in his one-on-one dialogue with Marcos.
“Mr. President Marcos, it’s great to have you here. I know you worked extremely hard today. I think I have seen you already three or four times and I know we have had so many sessions,” Brende said.
Like other attendees to the WEF, Romualdez said Brende was impressed with the performance of the Philippine economy despite the slowdown in many parts of the world.
“But even more importantly, the President was able to clearly convey his strategy for sustained growth and the peculiar advantages of the Philippines that would engender investor confidence in the realization of such objective,” Romualdez stressed.
In his conversation with Brende, Marcos said among the key factors for the growth of the Philippine economy was the creation of jobs, particularly in the MSME sector.
Marcos noted that the unemployment rate now in the Philippines is even lower than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last Tuesday, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva told Marcos during a bilateral meeting that IMF found the Philippines to be an “exceptionally well-performing country” despite the turbulence in the past years.
Georgieva expressed the readiness of the IMF to help its member countries, including the Philippines, in achieving sustainable growth and pushing for economic policies that would benefit more Filipinos.
