President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is hoping to "report good progress" once he returns to the country from Thailand, where he will seek investments from Thai businessmen and other economy leaders during his first participation at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' meetings.
In his pre-departure speech on Wednesday, the President said he will be engaging with leaders of economies of APEC to "agree on how we can achieve food and energy" security.
Marcos added he will push for a "safe and seamless cross border passage for our seamen and our other Filipino workers."
The President stressed the importance of APEC to the country and vice-versa by saying the Philippines hosts 38 percent of the world's population, 48 percent of the trade, and 62 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
"The largest segments of our OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers_ call this region their second home. 85 percent of our trade is within this region and that's the reason why Filipino consumers have access to goods and services from this region," he said.
"But more importantly our farmers, our laborers, our businessmen and most importantly our MSMEs are able to export their goods and services to the economies of this region," he added.
An advocate of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), the President said he will seek for the economic inclusion not only of MSMEs but also of women, indigenous people, and other segments "whose economic potential remains to be unlocked."
At the APEC, in which members are mostly part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that Marcos recently met in Cambodia, the President will take the chance to "build upon the discussions" they had at its recently concluded summits.
This time, he said he is hoping "to put some meat on those very preliminary discussions that we have had."
"It is very clear that there are many areas of consensus between our countries in the Asia Pacific, Indo-Pacific region, and that is what I hope to build on," he said.
"We have established that those are the common concerns of all the leaders, of all the countries around the region... I believe that that is also what other leaders are intending to do and I hope to report good progress when I come back from Bangkok," he added.
Aside from meetings with economy leaders, Marcos said he will also sit down with Thai businessmen to pitch for investments to the Philippines—his usual goal on his foreign trips.
He will conduct bilateral talks with several state leaders, which is still being finalized by the government.
He will also have a meet-and-greet with the Filipino community there as it will be his first time to visit Thailand since assuming the presidency.
"Since the start of my coming to the office, we have already gone through a lot, but we don't waver on the dream," he said.