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Balisacan: Investment pledges during Marcos’ state visits could take time to materialize


Investment pledges made during President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s state visits could take time to materialize, according to National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Arsenio Balisacan on Tuesday.

At a Palace briefing, Balisacan was asked if the several investment pledges made during Marcos' state visits to Indonesia and Singapore as well as his working visit to the United States have already materialized even in initial stages.

Balisacan explained that investors usually "do their work" to guarantee the benefits they would get from making investments to a certain country.

"As been earlier reported, there are many of those intentions and pledges but you know major investments are usually... usually take time to materialize. It's actually fast when you get those investments in one year because when people, investors go to a country or expand their operation in the country, they'll do their work to ensure their investments will deliver their returns," Balisacan said.

"As usually the case, you don't expect that when they promise they come in, the next day they are there. That's not the real world," he added.

Marcos earlier said several letters of intent and memorandums of understanding have been signed with Indonesian and Singaporean investors regarding P804.78 billion worth of investments.

The President said the LOIs and the MOUs were in the sectors of renewable energy, data centers, e-commerce, broadband technology, startups, government housing and agriculture.

Malacañang also disclosed that Marcos' working visit to the US could generate close to $4 billion worth of investments, which has a potential employment generation of 112,285 jobs.

Meanwhile, Balisacan was also asked for information on the investments supposedly made during Marcos' latest Singapore trip in which he watched the Formula One Grand Prix or F1 with some family members.

Balisacan said he was not privy to the figures.

"I don't have the number, I don't have... I was not privy to those numbers but I think those were shared already earlier... But again, let me emphasize that a big part of the efforts to bring in investments to the country are like a courtship. You have to keep pitching to the attractiveness of the Philippines as an investment destination," he said.

"It's not enough often that you talk once with them. You talk twice. It has to be a frequent follow-up," he said.

Marcos has said Formula 1 racing was the best way to "drum up business" as he even called his trip in Singapore "productive." The Palace, however, has not released any information yet on the investments made during that trip.

Former Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles only said the President affirmed what were discussed in his last state visit to Singapore, and he continued to encourage investments to the Philippines.

Amid criticisms on this trip, the Palace has defended it, saying that Marcos did his job as President— RSJ/KG, GMA News

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