Philippines ‘open for business’: Marcos Jnr says sovereign wealth fund will be managed by experts
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
is calling for more direct investment in the Philippines in areas such as infrastructure, power generation, agriculture and renewable energy.
The fund will operate without political interference, Marcos Jr.said.
added, amid concerns among Philippine lawmakers that the fund could fall victim to mismanagement.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
told a conference of Asian business elites that the Philippines’ first sovereign wealth fund will be professionally managed and operated without political interference, amid There are still concerns about potential corruption similar to the 1MDB scandal in Malaysia.Speaking before an audience of private investors, family office representatives and other sovereign wealth managers at the Milken Institute’s 10th Asia Summit in Singapore on Wednesday, Marcos Jr.
again called for more foreign direct investment in his country in the fields of infrastructure, power generation, agriculture and renewable energy, declaring his country “open to business”.
Last year, the Philippine leader said he received investment commitments worth $14 billion during a visit to Indonesia and Singapore in his first foreign trip as president.
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Philippine President Marcos Jnr approves heritage fund bill, promises ‘maximum caution’
“It will be managed like a fund,” Marcos Jr.said Wednesday about the Maharlika Investment Fund.
It is not managed by the government but by experts.This is one of the main guarantees I have to give.
because when politicians get involved, financial decisions are no longer purely financial,[and] this leads to ineffective fund management.”
Marcos Jnr’s comments come as Philippine lawmakers fear the fund could fall victim to mismanagement, while his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, said she was worried.
afraid it could go in the direction of the Malaysian state-run 1MDB fund scandal, which was robbed of billions of dollars..
Imee questioned the timing of the establishment of the sovereign wealth fund given the government’s large foreign debt, much of which is the legacy of Marcos Jr.
‘s grandfather and father, former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who amassed the loan.
to finance infrastructure projects in the 1970s and 1980s.
Marcos’s 21 years in power were marked by large-scale corruption and crony capitalism.
President Marcos Jr.told a conference in Singapore that the new fund is a way to use unused reserves to create growth and jobs for the Philippines without additional borrowing.
He said the fund will use the government’s seed capital to invest in important projects, collaborating with investments from both public and private funds.
According to Marcos Jnr, the Philippines has big plans to complete, such as expanding agricultural production, to no longer be completely dependent on imports, a lesson learned during the pandemic.
The Philippines also needs capital to address its inefficient electricity distribution system and highly bureaucratic way of doing business, he added.
Marcos Jnr has pushed a pro-foreign investor agenda in the renewable energy sector, with fully foreign-owned projects allowed as well as tax breaks and a strong regulatory framework that will protect interests and intellectual property rights of foreign owners.
All of this goes against the views of national economists and business leaders.
Late last year, 12 groups of business leaders and economists issued a statement opposing the bill establishing the fund, which Marcos Jr. signed into law in July.
They argue that the Philippines does not have excess capital and should prioritize paying off foreign debt, which increased by $7.5 billion to nearly $120 billion at the end of March, according to the Philippine central bank.
They added that funds should be deployed to provide public services.
China’s real estate crisis will require more than policy solutions:Experts
Marcos Jnr spoke on the opening day of the Milken Asia Summit, where discussions also took place on weak global economic conditions and the slowing Chinese economy.
However, the investment community is quite optimistic about a slowdown in the Chinese economy, saying that while traditional sectors such as real estate occasionally experience “cyclical” declines that are common in other economies, then other sectors of the economy such as engineering, especially in the engineering sector, The renewable energy and electric vehicle sectors are very dynamic.
“While people tend to focus on the weaknesses of traditional sectors, they also tend to ignore emerging fields”
“I think it’s very important to know that China is actually in a different cycle than the United States or a developed market economy.”
1 Peter 3:8
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
