President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will be pitching for more trade and investment during his next week's trip to Indonesia for the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Summits, an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

DFA Assistant Secretary for ASEAN Affairs Daniel Espiritu said this days ahead of Marcos' participation in the said regional meet, which will run from Sept. 5 to 7 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In a pre-departure briefing in Malacañang, Espiritu said the President is expected to attend business events in addition to those planned by the ASEAN.

"The President will be fishing for more trade and investment with ASEAN countries as well as external partners," he said on Thursday, Aug. 31.

"The President will also be attending events, specifically to pitch trade and investment in Indonesia," he added.

According to Espiritu, Marcos will participate in the ASEAN-Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) meeting. He will also attend meetings with Indonesian businessmen that intend to expand their presence in the Philippines.

One of the companies is WIR Asia, which intends to expand one of its subsidiaries in the Philippines to the tune of P1 billion or $20 million. This would expand innovations in metaverse and artificial intelligence applications.

PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, who signed a letter of intent in September 2022 to the Philippines, is expected to attend the meetings. The company will present to Marcos the progress of its project in the Philippines and the launching of a satellite in December 2023. They also plan to allocate 13.5 gigabytes per second of bandwidth for the Philippines.

Lastly, Darya-Varia Laboratoria and Vaksindo Satwa Nusantara will be present during the business meetings. According to Espiritu, these companies will soon provide the Philippines with avian influenza vaccines.

"Ito pa lang 'yung mga nasa pipeline ngayon. May mga ginagawa pa (These are what's in the pipeline for now. We're still working on others)," he said.

Meanwhile, the President will also promote five of the country's infrastructure projects during the opening of the ASEAN-Indo-Pacific Forum.

"Airport development projects in Zamboanga, Busuanga, Sanga-sanga in Tawi-Tawi, also in Brookes Point, Palawan, and there's another one in—basta, all in all, there are five of them," Espiritu said.

Delegation

According to Espiritu, there will be at least three Cabinet members to join the President in his upcoming trip to Indonesia next week:

• DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo
• Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian
• Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual

"It's up to the President kung sino pa ang idadagdag niya (if he wants to bring more). There'll be more, definitely," he said.

In addition, the Foreign Affairs official said a business delegation would join Marcos.

"Nandoon (Joining are) at least some of the members of the Philippine members of the ASEAN-Business Advisory Council and, of course, 'yung magiging partners ng sinasabing mga (the would-be partners of the) foreign companies who are coming in or infusing more investments," he said.