Romualdez continues sales pitch, puts PH 'up front' at WEF
At A Glance
- With its unique demographic advantage, ongoing economic reforms, and synergy with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines makes for an ideal destination for foreign investment, according to House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)
With its unique demographic advantage, ongoing economic reforms, and synergy with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines makes for an ideal destination for foreign investment, according to House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
In a statement on Friday, Jan. 19, Romualdez said the beauty of the ASEAN lies in its centrality, where member-countries with diverse backgrounds communicate with each other easily and come together as one to address common challenges.
“And that's why it's not such a big surprise that after the Covid pandemic, we the ASEAN emerged as the bright spot in the global economy, of course I'd like to put the Philippines up front,” he said.
The House Speaker said this on Thursday, Jan. 18 during the “Learning from ASEAN” panel discussion at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Romualdez, who is spearheading the Philippine delegation in the WEF meet, notes that the ASEAN is expected to be one of the fastest-growing regions of the global economy and an increasingly important growth engine for the Asia-Pacific over the next decade.
“And we like to herald the fact that we have a very, very young working population with the median age of 25 years old. We also have an English-speaking population that provides this facility for communications not just within the ASEAN but throughout the international global community,” the House leader said.
As opposed to the past decade when the Philippines was “a bit of an isolation” in terms of foreign investment, Romualdez says that the country is now “open for business”.
“We welcome the global community, we want to share our talents, our gifts to the whole world,” he said.
“We leverage from the experience of our neighbors in the ASEAN (like) Vietnam and Thailand that have proven to be stalwarts in the region.
“And this is where we see what we call nationalism within the region. We try to prosper in this global community environment. And that's why we try to strive to celebrate our individuality but then we come together and we share.”
Romualdez had also played up at the global stage the launch of the Philippines' first sovereign wealth fund, the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).
He says that Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) CEO Rafael Consing, Jr. is currently meeting fund managers to try and “reach out to the world”.
Under its mandate, the MIC manages the mobilizing and utilizing of the MIF for investments in transactions in order to generate optimal returns on investments, while helping meet the socio-economic needs of the country. It’s set to have an authorized capital stock of P500 billion.
“The fund strategy is aimed at sectors that drive and ensure multi-generational growth, particularly energy security, food security, physical connectivity, technology, and sustainable use of national resources,” the Speaker shared.
Earlier in the day, Romualdez informed executives of international business groups during a breakfast roundtable discussion of the ongoing initiative to remove the restrictive provisions in the 1987 Constitution.
Romualdez, leader of the 300-plus strong House of Representatives, has been pushing for Charter change (Cha-cha) in a bid to remove supposed constraints in the economic provisions.
The Senate has recently launched its own resolution seeking to amend the Constitution.