At least 487 business missions to PHL in 2012 — Trade Dep't

The Philippines received 487 business missions in the 10-month period from January to October this year—a record number that is already a 56.6-percent jump from the total in 2011, the Department of Trade and Industry announced. “This influx of business missions is a strong affirmation of the Aquino administration’s economic reforms that have resonated prominently to foreign investors worldwide,” Trade Undersecretary Cristino Panlilio said in a statement. The missions consisted of 34 multi-company delegation missions composed of at least five corporations' executives (a 112.5-percent improvement year-on-year) and 147 individual company visits. “Traditional markets such as Japan, US, Taiwan, and Korea remained a major source of foreign investor visits,” Panlilio said. He also said that the growing interest in the Philippines of non-traditional markets such as Russia, Turkey, the European Union and the Middle East added to the number of business visitors to the country. He added that the sectors of interest for these inbound missions include information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO), power (including green energy), tourism, agribusiness and aquaculture, electronics and public-private partnership (PPP) projects. The Board of Investments also noted 13 outbound missions to other Asian countries and four presidential state visits in 2012. President Benigno Aquino III led three of these state visits: a trip to the United Kingdom and the US in June that brought in at least $2.5 billion in investments; a trip to New Zealand and Australia in October; and attendance at the ASEAN Business Advisory Council meeting during the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia in November. Vice President Jejomar Binay represented the President in the fourth state visit, which was to India to attend the ASEAN-India Business Fair and Forum. — BM, GMA News