President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s record-breaking number of votes as a winning presidential candidate has "inspired" the country's business sector to make the Philippines "a great investment destination," Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said Tuesday, Sep. 27.
During the President's recent trip to New York, Concepcion said, some of the country's business leaders helped Marcos to achieve his administration's economic agenda by pitching investments into the country.
This happened when Asia Society Philippines Chair Doris Magsaysay Ho and its vice chairman, Myla Villanueva, organized a a high-level roundtable meeting, which was attended by some of the world’s largest private equity investors in aviation, big infrastructure, energy, fintech and payments, e-commerce, and digital infrastructure.
Some of those who attended included: former ambassador John Negroponte of McLarty Associates, Ken Mehlman of KKR, Andrew Thomas of Stonepeak, Mark Tatum of NBA, Dinesh Kanna of Boston Consulting, Michael Kirban of VitaCoco, Proof of Learn founder Sheila Marcelo, Asia Society trustee Asheet Mehta of McKinsey, Nick Rohatyn of The Rohatyn Group, Itai Lemberger of Bow Wave Capital, Brian Franke of Indigo Partners, and Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, who is also already invested in Mynt, or Gcash.
"Asia Society was instrumental in bringing in its network of investors, most of whom are already invested in the Philippines, and shared insights about opportunities as the new administration transforms the economy," Concepcion said.
According to Concepcion, the move of the Filipino business leaders only proved their support for the administration as they were even "in full force during the three major business briefings during the visit."
For his part, Ayala Corp. chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said it is now up to the private sector to maximize the favorable business environment under the Marcos administration.
"This government has been very supportive of the private sector and public participation. The President is very keen to get the private sector involved and we are delighted with that," he said.
To which Aboitiz CEO Sabin Aboitiz added: "The President has quite cleverly gotten 30 of our country’s busiest CEOs to voluntarily work for him."
Concepcion believed that Marcos' winning the biggest mandate "inspired the private sector to join in this bid to make the country a great investment destination."
"Likewise, it reflected in how the foreign investors were eager to connect with us, seeing how well attended the briefings were and how the meetings were on time and went on as scheduled," he added
The Philippine private sector representative at the Asia Society meeting were the heads of the largest companies in the Philippines, including Private Sector Advisory Council convenor and Aboitiz CEO Sabin Aboitiz, RFM Corp. president and CEO Joey Concepcion, Ayala Corp chairman Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Magsaysay Holdings CEO Doris Magsaysay Ho, JG Summit CEO Lance Gokongwei, GCash President Martha Sazon, and Micro-D International, Inc. founder Myla Villanueva.