President Marcos’ economic team has made a pitch for investing in the Philippines and sought Japanese participation in the country’s “high-impact sectors,” the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

At the Philippine Business Opportunities Forum (PBOF) in Tokyo, Japan, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno underlined the country’s new investment opportunities, such as in manufacturing, infrastructure, services, energy, and agriculture.

Emphasizing Philippines’ renewable energy sector, Diokno said this has opened up to full foreign ownership, particularly in the exploration, development, and utilization of solar, wind, hydro, and ocean or tidal energy.

Diokno’s pitch is in line with the country’s goal to increase the share of renewable energy in the power generation mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

Moreover, the government’s chief economic manager highlighted that the Philippines is also determined to re-establish itself as a top exporter of agricultural products.

Hence, the country has increased its agriculture budget by more than 40 percent and is investing heavily in medium and long-term efforts to increase local food production and modernize the agriculture sector.

The Philippines’ manufacturing output also grew for seven straight months and soared to a seven-month high in December 2022. This makes the country a capable source of intermediate products and services for businesses.

To build better and more infrastructure, Diokno said the government will harness the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism, a move that aims to speed up investments while ensuring quality infrastructure development.

Diokno also zeroed in on the Philippines’ pool of young, tech-savvy, and English-proficient workers that will complement Japan’s forward-looking enterprises, advanced technology, and research and development (R&D) programs.

“With a median age of 25 years old, the Philippines enjoys what is called a demographic sweet spot. We intend to capitalize on our positive demographic fundamentals to boost recovery and build a more inclusive and modern economy,” he said.

Japan remains to be the Philippines’ major trade partner and top investment source. It was the country’s second largest trading partner and the second largest source of investments.

The government is currently implementing the Philippines’ first-ever Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) that aims to bring down the debt ratio to less than 60 percent by 2025 then further down to 51.1 percent in 2028.

MTFF also aims to reduce the budget deficit to 3.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2028.

“We have already made significant headway on this front. With our faster-than-expected growth in the last quarter of 2022, our debt-to-GDP ratio by the end of the year improved to 60.9 percent, lower than the government’s target of 61.8 percent for 2022,” Diokno said.

Apart from prudent fiscal management, the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 was adopted to execute actionable strategies for economic and social transformation.

Furthermore, structural reforms such as amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, Foreign Investments Act, Public Service Act (PSA), and Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act have been passed to facilitate the flow of foreign capital.