PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—Just like his usual pitch during meetings with foreign businessmen, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday encouraged local business leaders here to come to the Philippines to invest as he gave assurance that the government would help them by exploiting the domestic market that offers them a huge potential.
Citing the proximity of the two countries, Marcos said Cambodian businesses could come to the country to learn what the Philippines has done in transforming the economy.
"We would like to invite at the very least, for you, to have a look at the opportunities that are available," Marcos said in a roundtable meeting with Cambodian business executives at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits here.
"And finally I suppose at some point, since we are not so far away, to come and we will explain to you exactly what we have done and why we have done it and where we have arrived in that process of transforming the economy," he added.
In calling for investments, the President said he was not intent on steering evomomic recovery.
Instead, he meant about transforming the economy "because the new economy is going to be different from everything that we did in 2019."
"And so this is what we are looking forward to and I hope to see you all in the Philippines soon," he said.
To help investors, the President said the government is inclined to develop the domestic market considering its vast potential for both foreign and local investors.
"A hundred and seven people is a big market and we have to develop that market. We have not developed our own markets. And I think that is another potential that we can exploit down the road," he said.
Manufacturing sector is the one he wants to improve, Marcos told Cambodian businessmen. This is because the goal, he added, is to have a balanced economy on the contributors to the gross domestic product (GDP) between the manufacturing side and the service side.
"Right now, it's very, very much skewed to service sector. So again as I said, we have a more balanced economy, we are trying to build up the manufacturing side of the economy and that is why capital-intensive investment will be very, very important for us to be able to do that," he said.
According to the President, the government needs cooperation from the private sector as its economy started emerging from the Covid-19 crisis.
He said his administration already changed many of the policies and procedures when it comes to public-private partnerships and even government-to-government partnerships.
Now, Marcos said, the government is working for direct investment into the country to boost the mentioned sector and make it a significant contributor to the GDP.
Other areas that are the basic economic drivers of the Philippines include the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), agriculture and energy, he added.
During the meeting, Marcos told businessmen that the government "is taking the economy in the right direction," although it is being "pummeled by the forces outside of which we have no control."