MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino believes the Philippines is catching up on foreign direct investments despite hurdles that it needs to overcome and decades of being out of the radar of the international community.

Aquino said just like in other developing countries, a lot of infrastructure had to be done, including ports, airports and road networks, but the country’s labor force, among others, remained one of its biggest assets.

He was asked during Friday’s Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. Chief Executive Officers Forum about the country’s competitive edge since its neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were registering more impressive numbers in terms of investments.

Aquino said the list to prove the Philippines’ competitiveness was extensive, citing for instance free trade agreements signed with different countries, the European Union’s Generalized System of Preferences Plus status given to the country for easier access to the EU market, electricity rates becoming more reasonable and better education, among other improved social services and investments for the people.

He said the ASEAN integration would impact positively on the country – from its own market of 100 million to the rest of the 500-million market of the whole region.

“And, again, so many different free trade agreements are in process (of negotiations),” Aquino said.

The President said the country’s laws had been amended to improve business environment, such as the amendments to the Cabotage Law, making inter-island shipping more efficient and the opening of the banking sector to make it easier for various entities and their financing partners to do business in the country.

“We are actually inaugurating the first one that applied under this liberalization of our banking sector. I can go on and on but I think you get the general idea,” Aquino said.

He said the Philippines could not be compared to Indonesia, for example, because Jakarta started liberalizing its economy about 10 years ahead of Manila.

“Under our watch, the foreign direct investment figure has grown six times or 600 percent in general. So we are behind by at least 10 years, but the foreign direct investments is roughly half of what they achieved,” Aquino said.

“In fact, we are catching up as shown by the numbers,” he added.

Source: www.philstar.com