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The Philippines, with its unique demographic advantage and ongoing reforms to open the economy, is an ideal destination for foreign investments, Speaker Martin Romualdez told members of the global business community in Davos, Switzerland.
“We like to herald the fact that we have a very, very young working population with the median age of 25 years old. We also have an English-speaking population that provides this facility for communications not just within the ASEAN but throughout the international global community,” said Romualdez as one of the panelists in the “Learning from ASEAN” session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.
“We are announcing to the global community that as opposed to the past decade when there was a bit of an isolation of the Philippines the Philippines is open for business: we welcome the global community we want to share our talents, our gifts to the whole world,” he added in the meeting on Thursday (Friday in Manila).
Romualdez noted the Philippines is also in synergy with ASEAN, adding that while member-countries have diverse cultures, languages, and practices, they communicate with each other easily and come together as one to address the common challenges they face.
“And that’s why it’s not such a big surprise that after the COVID pandemic we the ASEAN emerged as the bright spot in the global economy. Of course, I’d like to put the Philippines up front,” he said.
The ASEAN region is expected to continue to be one of the fastest-growing regions of the global economy and an increasingly important growth engine for the Asia-Pacific over the next decade.
Earlier, Romualdez informed executives of international business groups during a breakfast round table discussion of the ongoing initiative to remove the restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.
“We want to share our talents, our gifts to the whole world. We leverage from the experience of our neighbors in the ASEAN (like) Vietnam and Thailand that have proven to be stalwarts in the region,” Romualdez said.
He also announced the launch of the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, the Maharlika Investment Fund.
“This forum is an auspicious time for us because it is the very first time that the Philippines is presenting to the WEF our first Sovereign wealth fund called the Maharlika Investment Fund. We have just launched it this morning and our CEO now is meeting with a number of fund managers, and we are trying now to reach out to the world,” Romualdez said.
The fund strategy is aimed at sectors that drive and ensure multi-generational growth, particularly energy security, food security, physical connectivity, technology, and sustainable use of national resources, he said.
According to Maharlika Investment Corporation CEO Rafael Consing Jr., the fund’s governance structure aligns with international best practices, ensuring transparency, accountability, and adherence to the highest standards. — Maricel Cruz
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