WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. called for the reauthorization of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program to boost Philippine exports to the United States.
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo courtesy of PCO)
Marcos made the call in a speech at a forum organized by the United States (US)-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business Council and US Chamber of Commerce at the Blair House here on Wednesday.
"We would like to request for reauthorization… to boost trade, and to make U.S. products that are made in the Philippines more competitive," Marcos said, stressing that it has been more than two years since the GSP program ended.
In his speech, the chief executive called on US companies to invest more in the Philippines as he touted before American business executives the Philippine economy’s growth, which stood at 7.6 percent last year.
“This is the effect of our very aggressive efforts really to promote the Philippines as an investment destination,” Marcos said.
“We will never, at any point, say we got it perfected. We will continue to listen to you and to all our other partners as to what else we can do to help the --- to help transform our economy and in that way to be able to play a viable part in the security and defense issues that are the challenges of the day and of the region,”Marcos added.
Present at the forum were top American businessmen and Filipino tycoons that include Sabin Aboitiz, Ramon Ang, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Enrique Razon, Tessie Sy Coson, Lance Gokongwei and Kevin Tan, among others.