President Marcos’ economic managers will meet some of the senior executives and representatives of large US-based businesses this week as part of the government’s drive to drum up investors interest in the Philippines.

The economic team, led by Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, is set to brief 180 senior executives and representatives of Boeing, Carroll, GeoX, FedEx, Visa and Ford, along with industry associations and financial communities in Washington D.C.

“The message is one of optimism: how the Philippines has transformed itself into one of the fastest growing economies in the fastest growing region in the world,” Diokno said.

Diokno will be joined in by Bangko Sentral na Pilipinas Governor Felipe Medalla, Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, and National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.

The economic briefing will be held on the sidelines of the week-long World Bank International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in the US capital.

Diokno said the economic team will unveil the many business opportunities for foreign investors in the Philippines.

“The Philippine government did not sit idly by and wait for the virus to fade amid the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing global uncertainties,” Diokno said.

“Instead it adopted new laws to open up the economy to foreign investors and make the economy vibrant and  competitive,” the finance chief said.

“The economic team has a significantly strong economic story to tell. The economic numbers support the positive outlook,” he added.

The Philippine economy grew by 7.6 percent in 2022, the highest in 46 years, exceeding the growth assumption of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

The 2022 GDP growth exceeded the median forecast of local private sector analysts, which was around 7.5 percent, as well as the economic projections by the IMF (6.5 percent), and the World Bank (7.2 percent).

Growth was broad-based, with all sectors growing despite the increase in world and domestic commodity prices. Services grew by 9.2 percent, industry by 6.7 percent, and agriculture by 0.5 percent.

The growth drivers on the demand side include household consumption, government spending, investment, and net export.

Household consumption is expected to grow significantly because of better jobs market, direct measures to ease price pressures, lower income tax rates due to tax reforms, continued growth in overseas Filipino remittances, and targeted interventions to preserve purchasing power.

Government spending is also expected to pick up with the early approval and timely implementation of the 2023 National budget.

Moreover, infrastructure programs are expected to accelerate with the support of public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism; and the implementation of investment inducing reforms.

These reforms include amendments to the Public Service Act, Foreign Investment Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act and the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises.