Several American investors expressed interest in expanding to the Philippines after Finance Secretary Ralph Recto pitched the country as a prime investment destination.
Recto said several American investors who have ongoing investments in the Philippines came forward to express their desire to expand their operations in the country and gave support to the government’s plans to further improve the ease of doing business.
“We currently have 12 hotels across six brands, but we’re expanding rapidly in the Philippines. And in our current signed pipeline, we have 16 new hotels. We’re planning to more than double our presence currently, which is just a very exciting time,” a Marriott International executive said.
“Firstly, I’d like to express our enthusiasm for the investment environment in the Philippines. We have a very large workforce footprint there, doing high-technology jobs. I was pleased to hear the comments from the budget secretary about increased investment in digitalization,” an IBM executive said.
“We’re making a great investment in skills in the Philippines in partnership with DOLE, the labor authority, and TESDA, the technical education authority, and we’d like to see the government continue to focus on that area so we can continue to expand technology jobs in the Philippines,” the executive said.
“It’s been an incredible partnership with your government and we’re thrilled with the announcement of the Luzon Corridor during the trilateral leaders summit last week. We look forward to engagement with a range of other government and private sector partners,” an official from the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment said.
“We at Citi are proud to be a partner to the government, to the Philippine community. You know, we’ve been on the ground and continue to grow and prosper and we bring our clients and connect with our clients in the Philippines every day,” said Citi corporate and investment banking vice chairman Jay Collins.
Recto, in a presentation during the Philippine Dialogue on April 17, 2024 at The Ritz-Carlton in Washington D.C., made a strong case before American investors on the compelling reasons why they should continue expanding their operations in the country.
Among these is the Philippines’ promising growth trajectory with the country holding the status of being the fastest-growing economy in ASEAN and soon to be one of the largest economies in the world.
Recto said that despite the external headwinds, the Philippines expanded by an average of 6.6 percent during President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s term.
Multilateral organizations affirm the strength of the Philippine economy projecting it to remain a frontrunner in the region with a projected growth of 5.8 percent to 6.3 percent in 2024.