At the sidelines of President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to Japan for the Nikkei’s 25th International Conference on The Future of Asia on 30 to 31 May, Philippine and Japanese firms will sign over 20 business agreements, amounting close to PHP 300 billion (US$5 billion) and a projected employment of at least eighty thousand jobs.
“The Department of Trade and Industry is consistently pursuing investments from all countries to provide decent employment opportunities to Filipinos. This is part of President Duterte’s Tapang at Malasakit approach to nation-building and DTI’s priorities, summed up as Trabaho, Negosyo, Konsyumer,” said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, who will witness the signing of the business agreements.
Lopez said that “Japanese investors remain bullish on the sustained growth momentum under the administration of President Duterte, given its aggressive infrastructure build-up, meaningful investment and financial reforms and demographic advantages.”
The signed investment pledges will mostly be in infrastructure, manufacturing, electronics, medical devices, business process outsourcing (BPO), power, electricity, transport, automotive, food manufacturing, and marine manpower industries. DTI will also hold a business forum and roundtable discussions to have a closer dialogue with the Japanese investors, and an opportunity for greater business-to-business interactions.
In 2018, Japan was the Philippines’ 2nd major trading partner with total trade at US$20 billion, US$9.5 billion-worth of exports to Japan, and US$10.5 billion-worth of imports from Japan. The country is the Philippines’ 3rd major export market and import supplier.