President Marcos underscored the role of the United States in the Philippines’ post-pandemic recovery, citing it as the country’s fourth largest source of foreign direct investments (FDIs) and one of its biggest export destinations.

President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. attends the Philippine-US Business Forum in Washington D.C on Friday, April 12, 2024 (US time). (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)

The President touted the Philippines’ strong post-pandemic economic recovery, and its being one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia in his keynote address before the Philippine-US Business Forum in Washington D.C.

Marcos participated in the historic trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“Over the years, the Philippines has acknowledged the significant contribution of the United States to our economic agenda. We have observed the consistent high ranking of the United States, as evident last year, being our third top trading partner,” he said.

Last year, the US was the Philippines’ fourth largest source of FDI, Marcos added.

“Moreover, the United States emerged as the primary destination for our goods and services in that same year," he noted.

In 2023, semiconductors and integrated circuits were the Philippines’ biggest exports to the US amounting to $3.1 billion, or 23.3 percent of its total exports to the country.

The Philippines is also a major part of the US semiconductor and IC design supply chain as more and more US companies plan to expand in the Philippines in that sector.

During the US’ first Presidential Trade and Investment Mission (PTIM) to the Philippines in March, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced that Manila can expect at least $1 billion worth of planned investments by American companies.

Marcos said that the Philippines’ economic growth rate bested that of China, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

“On the economy, I would like to share with you that for 2023, the Philippines achieved a 5.6 percent annual growth in GDP (gross domestic product) which outpaced other high-growth economies such as China Viet Nam, and Malaysia,” he said.

“Despite the recovery time needed to accelerate businesses coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to either exceed or match the economic projections of multilateral organizations, such as the IMF, the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office, and the World Bank,” he added.

The President touted the significant increase in FDI net inflows, surging by 28 percent and reaching $1 billion in November 2023 from $820 million of net inflows in the same period in 2022.

He also reported that the Department of Trade and Industry-Board of Investments (DTI-BOI) approved P1.26 trillion in investment projects last year, an increase of 73 percent compared to the previous year of P729 billion.