Duterte to Japanese businessmen: The Philippines is open for business

The three-day official visit of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to Tokyo aims at encouraging Japanese investors to engage the Philippine market and get them involved in government infrastructure projects.

"We will discuss among others greater political social and defense cooperation ... With Japan as the Philippines' top trading partner, I shall seek the sustainment and further enhancement of our important economic ties," Duterte said during in a press conference before departing for Japan.

"I look forward to meeting business leaders in Japan. I will tell them clearly that the Philippines is open for business," the President emphasized.

In July 2016, Philippine exports to the Land of the Rising Sun amounted to $909.56 million or 19.5 percent of the country's exports, making Japan the its top trading partner. At the same time, the Philippines bought $824.97 million worth of Japanese goods equivalent to 12.3 percent of total imports.

Japan announced in August it will pour $2.4 billion into a new railway project in the Philippines, to help ease Manila's gridlock.

Duterte on Monday said he will discuss possible investments in public transportation in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao.

"To support the Philippine sustained growth and development I shall seek to open more avenues of cooperation in key infrastructure development," he said, noting that Japan has been advanced in developing high-quality and modern public transportation. "Mindanao will be a center-focus," Duterte noted.

Duterte said earlier he was eyeing new railway systems as the "first big project" of his presidency, one of which was the Mindanao Railway System.

Employment boost

In August, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the government was likely to start constructing the train system in 2017, with the project details and costs already being discussed.

The railway is supposed to connect major cities such as Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Zamboanga, Butuan, Surigao, Davao, and General Santos.

"When it's completed, it will go around the entire island of Mindanao. It's about 2,000 kilometers," Pernia said.

Duterte noted in June that China also offered to build railways to address the traffic problem in the Philippines.

In a separate statement on Monday, the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) said the infrastructure projects will boost employment in the Philippine construction sector.

The projects are expansive and comprehensive and would create 2.4 million jobs for Filipinos over three years, Alan Tanjusay, ALU spokesperson, said in an emailed statement.

"If these are constructed altogether at the same time, we might need additional skills especially those skilled Filipino OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) repatriated from Saudi Arabia as a result of Saudization," he added.

The Duterte administration has allotted P8.2 trillion to fund the "golden age of infrastructure" over the next six years, as part of the government's plan to boost infrastructure spending to 5.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). — Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News