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21 deals from PBBM’s Japan trip to materialize in 1-3 yrs: DTI

By Kris Crismundo

February 14, 2023, 5:39 pm

MANILA – A trade official said 21 out of the 33 business deals during the official working visit to Japan of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. will materialize within one to three years.

During the Laging Handa public briefing Tuesday, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Assistant Secretary Glenn Peñaranda said most of these low-hanging fruit investment pledges are in the manufacturing sector.

Peñaranda said majority of the investment pledges from Japanese manufacturers are expansion projects for their operations here.

“These investment pledges will be in sectors where Japan is very active in the Philippines,” he added, citing sectors such as electronics, automotive and auto parts, wiring harness, green energy, software development, telecommunications, infrastructure, agriculture and property development.

In a separate television interview, DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual said an investment deal in telecommunications industry will start the construction of telecommunications towers this year.

Pascual earlier said the investment pledges bagged by the Philippine delegation during the Chief Executive’s visit to Japan last week are “ready to go”, and the Japanese investors are serious in their investment plans in the country as they are already operating in the Philippines.

“They are serious with their investment plans because they are already operating here,” he said in Filipino.

He added these business agreements are ready to go because they have found local partners to pursue their investment plans in the country.

In a separate interview with trade reporters, Peñaranda said those big-ticket projects involving mass transport and other infrastructure projects will take longer to be completed.

“But most of them will come during the incumbency of President Marcos,” he said.

He added around 150 business delegates from the Philippines joined Marcos last week to have business-to-business (B2B) meetings with Japanese firms.

There were around 300 B2B meetings conducted between Filipino and Japanese companies in the previous week.

“We are waiting for the results of their business meetings,” Peñaranda said, adding that potential deals from these B2B meetings are not yet part of the USD13 billion pledges secured by Marcos during his Japan trip.

Green lane

Peñaranda said the executive order on facilitating significant projects establishing green lanes for registration, permits and licenses will accelerate the entry of these investments.

He said the Board of Investments (BOI), the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and other investment promotion agencies (IPAs) are doing follow through meetings to facilitate these investment deals.

In a statement, PEZA officer-in-charge Tereso Panga said the agency is committed to purse these investment pledges and materialize their benefits to the country, especially in generating more jobs.

“In support of the government's investment and export-led growth strategy, PEZA continues to enhance its business ecosystem in the ecozones to be able to attract more investments, jobs, exports and other economic opportunities for the country,” Panga said.

In PEZA alone, some 884 Japanese firms located their operations within ecozones. (PNA)

 

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