Manny Pangilinan, Mitsui commit $600M for Philippine infra dev't

TOKYO — Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, and Japanese diversified investment conglomerate Mitsui & Co. have pledges to pour in $600 million for infrastructure development in the Philippines.

In a statement on Sunday, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said Pangilinan and executives of Mitsui hosted a dinner for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday, February 8 — the first day of the chief executive’s five-day official visit here.

During the dinner, Pangilinan bared the invetsment commitment to Marcos, according to the PCO.

“We signed an agreement with Mitsui and several parties and management to commit to invest $600 million in the infrastructure,” said Pangilinan.

The PCO said Mitsui & Co. is also eyeing investments in priority sectors of the administration, particularly in agriculture, infrastructure and renewable energy.

Mitsui said it will continue “exploring the possibility of further collaboration with the Philippines in business areas of mutual interest,” including food and agriculture, renewable energy and digital transformation, according to the PCO.

“We can point to so many of the developments that happened in the Philippines with the assistance of the different Japanese funding agencies and government-to-government arrangements, the commercial arrangements -- and these have been for the benefit of both our countries,” the PCO quoted President Marcos as saying.

“And it is a particularly auspicious time that we come again now simply because we have to now restart our own economies, we have to transform our economies, and again the partnerships I think that we have developed with our friends here in Japan, with Mitsui in particular… we will have to revitalize them as they have been dormant, to a degree, during the lockdowns of the pandemic,” the President added.

Marcos also said he looks forward to the “discussions that we’ll be having” as he expressed “great hopes that this will be the driver of our economy.” —LBG, GMA Integrated News