Hello, I am Aufheben. Chinese media seem to rarely mention the Philippine delegation to Washington to attend the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (WB-IMF) Spring Meetings. The relevant news was reported in Washington, DC on April 4. During the meeting, Philippine Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno introduced the Philippine economy. During the meeting (PEB), Diokno introduced the country's growth agenda to American investors and vigorously promoted the Philippine government's infrastructure investment and development strategy for the next five years.
Philippine delegation heads to Washington for the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (WB-IMF) Spring Meetings
Mr. Diokno's resume is also very interesting. He is a supporter of the "Build, Build, Build" policy during the Duterte era and served as the governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines. He is also a well-known Filipino economist and will serve as the 2022nd Secretary of Finance under President Marcos Jr. from June 6, 30. He served as Secretary of Budget and Management under President Rodrigo Duterte from 32 to 2016. During the COVID-2019 pandemic from 2020 to 2021, Diokno became the highest-paid public official in the Philippines. He has always been an important figure in the Philippines to attract foreign investment to support the country's infrastructure development. It's just that this time the "begging object" is no longer China, but Mei. This also means that the prosperity of globalization in the Asia-Pacific region has ended ahead of schedule, and multilateral relations in economy, trade, politics, and military have shifted to the main axis of "regionalization" and "alliance".
“Infrastructure spending is front and center of the Philippines’ current growth strategy. We are committed to reversing decades of underinvestment in infrastructure in the Philippines, with average infrastructure spending accounting for only 2% of GDP, and there is plenty of room,” he said at the keynote. The speech stated: “The Philippine government is determined to maintain substantial infrastructure investment through the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the next six years, which will enhance the country’s energy, logistics and other infrastructure investments. ”, transportation, telecommunications and water infrastructure.
New creation incentives attract more than P4143 billion in investments
Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said projects benefiting from incentives provided by the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act have generated investments worth P4,143 billion.
“The total investment capital in CREATE-approved priority activities from August 2021 to December 8 has reached P2022 billion. This covers over P12 billion in priority activities,” Mr. Diokno said during an economic briefing in Washington, D.C. A statement was issued after the meeting. .In other words, all the 4,143 billion pesos of incentive reinvestment occurred after the epidemic, which also benefited from the Philippines’ attempt to modify foreign investment laws and thresholds. Amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA), Foreign Investment Act (FIA) and Public Service Act (PSA) have eased restrictions on foreign investment in the country.The House of Representatives is still working on amending the 10 Constitution to amend the provisions regarding foreign investment.
Secretary of Finance and former Central Bank Governor of the Philippines – Mr. Diokno
Mr. Diokno and other economic managers are in Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. “We invite you to review our Strategic Investment Priorities Plan, which identifies priority industries, projects and activities that could receive financial incentives under the CREATE Act,” Mr. Diokno told potential European and U.S. investors at a briefing.The plan details activities that qualify for tax benefits under the CREATE Act.Diokno said infrastructure spending was "front and center" of the government's growth strategy.Compared with before 2015, when infrastructure investment accounted for less than 2% of GDP, the current government plans to spend 5-6% of GDP on infrastructure construction, which is approximately twice the amount in 2015.
Can Marcus Jr.'s infrastructure ambitions be successfully matched by foreign investors?
In fact, in March this year, the National Economic Development Authority’s Board of Directors, chaired by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. himself, approved 3 flagship infrastructure projects worth P194 trillion. Most of the 9 projects involve physical connectivity as well as irrigation, water supply and flood management."The Philippine government is determined to maintain high infrastructure investment over the next six years through the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism, which will strengthen energy, logistics, transportation, telecommunications and water infrastructure," Diokno said. "Foreign investors can participate The scope of industries is wider than ever before. Economic liberalization measures implemented by the Philippine government in recent years have opened up key high-growth industries to international participation," he added.
If you ask me, Marcos may not be as good as Lao Du economically and politically, but his awareness of queuing is already N blocks behind Lao Du.
What I want to say here is that so-called foreign investment does not necessarily mean high returns.The strategy adopted by Marcus Jr. is to strengthen alliance relationships and attract sufficient European and American investment.Since the military and politics are closely linked, investment as a strategic security “compensation for taking sides” also follows.This is Marcus' "ambition".
The development of the Philippines requires infrastructure, not only industry and transportation, but also agriculture.The so-called ability matching is actually a false proposition.What is more important is to demonstrate the "alliance value" in economic activities, politics and military.The rapid embrace of the Philippines also shows that the Philippine government has seen the future trend of "economic regionalization" and "political alliance". The choice to be “antifragile” is also timely.Maybe many people will question it, but I want to say, please trust the sense of smell of ocean countries.History and the future will prove the success or failure and value of the Philippines’ “side” this time.
The renewable energy industry is fully open to foreign investment
As a broken island, Philippine energy has always been a key factor restricting economic and infrastructure investment.Conventional energy is costly for the Philippines.However, the "price line" of the solar, new energy and renewable energy industries is close to the price of fossil energy power generation. For the Philippines, the price of traditional fossil energy power generation is not cheap.If you’ve lived in Manila for a while, you’ll understand what this statement really means.Therefore, directly skipping some traditional energy supply models and embracing renewable energy is an important measure for the Philippines to reduce costs and embrace the world’s future “new economic growth points.”Furthermore, the environment of the Philippine Islands has historically been quite fragile.Renewable energy naturally has less environmental risks than traditional energy, and is more conducive to maintaining "green waters and green mountains" and maintaining beautiful seawater.
Philippine renewable energy projects are taking off at rocket speed
Finance Minister Mr. Diokno noted that solar, wind, hydro and tidal energy projects are now fully open to foreign investment. “Indeed, the Marcos administration proactively undertook several initiatives to encourage greater local and foreign investment and private sector participation in infrastructure development… We welcome and urge the investor community to consider investing their resources in flagship infrastructure projects in the country ,"
These projects will be prioritized during the Philippine government’s annual budget process. .Meanwhile, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said the Philippine House of Representatives will pass measures to maintain the country’s economic growth. “We are committed to further strengthening investment in the Philippines to improve the lives of Filipinos through additional measures that may be required by the Marcos administration. I urge foreign investors to join us in joining us in sharing the dividends of progress and development.”
This is just the beginning
