House Speaker Martin Romualdez has told American business investors the Philippines is now very ripe for them to invest in given the various progressive and meaningful initiatives and efforts Filipino leaders have undertaken to ensure ease of doing productive business in the country.
Romualdez, who is part of the official delegation of President Ferdinand R. “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for his working visit to the US, was asked to keynote the New York Stock Exchange Business Forum attended by US business leaders on Tuesday.
“We are open to broadening and strengthening our economic partnership. Let us continue to promote mutually beneficial trade and investment relationships,” he said in his message, and vowed to help make even stronger the robust ties between the Philippines and the United States.
Romualdez said Congress is working closely and efficiently with the Marcos leadership to further strengthen reforms initiated in recent years to attract more foreign investors into the Philippines.
“Rest assured that we, in the Philippine House of Representatives, remain committed to enacting laws that would help further deepen cooperation with the US, particularly in the areas of the supply chain, health and security, environment and climate change, energy security, and interconnectivity,” he said.
The US has been the Philippines’ major trading and economic cooperation partner and ally, making it a significant source of investments. It is also the biggest source of remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and Filipino-Americans.
Romualdez said the Philippines “needs more trading partners to help realize President Marcos’ infrastructure modernization program, which is also the best driver of economic growth.”
He said President Marcos aims to sustain government efforts toward responding to the crippling effects brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. “These include focusing government spending on improving the country’s healthcare systems, ensuring food security, increasing investments in public and digital infrastructure, and helping communities cope and prevail,” he added.
“We have to make different sectors of the economy stronger and more agile by creating more jobs and catalyzing business activities all over the country while saving lives and protecting communities from the continuing threat of the global health crisis,” Romualdez stressed.
Earlier, Romualdez expressed high hopes for the success of Marcos’ working visit, following successful trips to Indonesia and Singapore that resulted in more than US$14 billion in investment pledges from the respective business communities of the two countries.
President Marcos is set to address the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York. He will be the first leader of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to address this year’s high-level UN event, where he expects to hold sideline bilateral meetings with other world leaders, including US President Joe Biden.