JAKARTA, Indonesia—About $8.5 billion-worth of investment deals have been sealed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. during his first state visit here.
This was according to Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, who said Tuesday night that the amount could translate to at least 7,000 new jobs.
During the Jakarta Business Roundtable Meeting on Sept. 5, the President witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and Letter of Intent covering the following:
- $822 million in investments to textiles, garments, renewable energy, satellite gateway, wire global technology, and agrifood.
- $7 billion in infrastructure for unsolicited private-public partnerships such as a C-5 4-level elevated expressway, and
- $662 million trade value for supply of coal and fertilizer.
“Some are expansions to what are already – the operations that are already ongoing,” Marcos Jr. said in a press conference.
He added that some of these investments could be felt immediately, particularly those related to energy, transportation and agriculture industries.
During his discussion with the business leaders, Marcos Jr. said the latter, coming from a wide range of sectors, were "very enthusiastic" about doing business in the Philippines.
However, they were not able to come to the Philippines earlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.
"So I said, that already changed, so come to the Philippines,” he said.
“They all committed. Many of them are already actually involved in the Philippines. They said they wanted to just expand their involvement,” the President added.