By Roy Mabasa The Philippines will receive the “largest chunk” of the US$300 million security assistance fund under the Indo-Pacific strategy being pushed by the administration of United States President Donald J. Trump, a ranking US State Department official said on Wednesday. “It’s a recognition of the long-term partnership we have with the Philippines at the security front, in addition to the other things. We see it as a priority to help the Philippines,” Deputy Assistant Secretary Walter Douglas of the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs told reporters. Totaling to US$60 million, Douglas said the Indo-Pacific assistance to Manila will cover programs such as peacekeeping, maritime domain awareness, and “all sorts of areas we think we would work very well with the Philippines.” Douglas said the Philippines, being a close friend and ally of Washington, plays an important role as the Indo-Pacific strategy goes forward, including in its coming talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). INCLUSIVE STRATEGY The visiting American official explained that Indo-Pacific strategy aims to create a framework that would allow private sector money and investments to come to the region based on openness, transparency and rules-based system. The strategy, he added, is inclusive for any country and “not aimed against anybody.” “What it’s saying is that the private sector can lead economic growth here and we have to create the conditions to do it. It is not meant to exclude any country but rather set up an open, transparent, rules-based system that every country can participate in,” Douglas said. What is important, he added, is for funds and investments to come in to the region. “We don’t care where it comes from but that it comes into the region and that’s our interest,” Douglas stressed. PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENT He said the US, together with its partners and allies, has identified three major areas that could make a difference in the region namely digital economy, energy and infrastructure. As the set-up of the Indo-Pacific framework progress, Douglas said a country like the Philippines will be able to attract more foreign direct investments and foresee economic growth. Citing Asian Development Bank figures, he said there is an estimated P1.3 trillion deficit in infrastructure investment in the Indo-Pacific region. He noted that there is $US50 trillion moving around in money centers in the world such as in London, New York, and Hong Kong, among others. “The idea is to create a system or situation based on openness, transparency and well-defined rules so that private sector money will move out from those areas and more will come into this region,” he said. The US alone, he said, has a US$1.4 trillion trade relationship in the Indo-Pacific region and US$940 billion in the form of foreign direct investments that provides “real growth and real jobs.” “The problem with our FDI is it’s unevenly distributed across the region,” Douglas said, adding that their idea under the strategy is to have more countries that are better suited to receive the private sector investment.