THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) said it is hoping to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) in areas of advanced manufacturing and electric vehicles, among others, as it pins its hopes on the United States to make the country an alternative location for US firms wishing to offshore their manufacturing activities.
“The Philippines could be a viable site for US-based companies from North America or those American offshore companies shifting out production from their existing locations to take advantage of the country’s growing domestic market, huge pool of world-class and work quality-oriented workers, and as a production and distribution hub in the region,” Peza Director General Tereso O. Panga told reporters in a Viber message on Tuesday.
“While President Biden’s policy is to reshore all manufacturing activities for American companies, we hope that the much improved bilateral relations with US will allow the Philippines to benefit from that policy, making the country an alternative location for US companies to offshore manufacturing activities,” Panga added.
The Peza chief made these remarks as President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is currently on an “investment mission” in the US.
Panga emphasized that investment promotion agencies (IPAs) such as the Board of Investments (BOI) and Peza have benefited from the president’s previous foreign travels.
With this, Peza hopes to attract FDI in “advanced manufacturing, EV industry, Renewable Energy [RE] development, mineral processing, regenerative agriculture, and frontier technologies particularly in digital health, fintech, blockchain, artificial intelligence [AI] and big data—to boost our mix of industries and value adding in the ecozones.”
Apart from attracting investments, Panga said the agency hopes the visit will “reopen talks” on the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program and the implementation of the US Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
He said these programs “should benefit the Philippine economy in general and put us apace with other allied and forward-thinking economies joining the multilateral economic cooperation.”
THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) said it is hoping to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) in areas of advanced manufacturing and electric vehicles, among others, as it pins its hopes on the United States to make the country an alternative location for US firms wishing to offshore their manufacturing activities.
“The Philippines could be a viable site for US-based companies from North America or those American offshore companies shifting out production from their existing locations to take advantage of the country’s growing domestic market, huge pool of world-class and work quality-oriented workers, and as a production and distribution hub in the region,” Peza Director General Tereso O. Panga told reporters in a Viber message on Tuesday.
“While President Biden’s policy is to reshore all manufacturing activities for American companies, we hope that the much improved bilateral relations with US will allow the Philippines to benefit from that policy, making the country an alternative location for US companies to offshore manufacturing activities,” Panga added.
The Peza chief made these remarks as President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is currently on an “investment mission” in the US.
Panga emphasized that investment promotion agencies (IPAs) such as the Board of Investments (BOI) and Peza have benefited from the president’s previous foreign travels.
With this, Peza hopes to attract FDI in “advanced manufacturing, EV industry, Renewable Energy [RE] development, mineral processing, regenerative agriculture, and frontier technologies particularly in digital health, fintech, blockchain, artificial intelligence [AI] and big data—to boost our mix of industries and value adding in the ecozones.”
Apart from attracting investments, Panga said the agency hopes the visit will “reopen talks” on the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program and the implementation of the US Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
He said these programs “should benefit the Philippine economy in general and put us apace with other allied and forward-thinking economies joining the multilateral economic cooperation.”
At a recent roundtable with Filipino journalists, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the US is not currently negotiating any such agreements with trading partners in particular, because “we do not see that traditional program being appropriate for the types of challenges and opportunities that we are facing right now.”
Instead, Tai zeroed in on the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), noting that the IPEF is “one of our highest priorities right now and it is really important to us that the Philippines is at the table and participating.”
Besides IPEF, the US GSP is another avenue viewed to deepen trade relations with the US. The GSP for the Philippines expired in 2020. But, Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said, “we want to be renewed.”
The GSP deal is a unilateral preferential trade arrangement by the US to some 120 beneficiary developing countries and least developed beneficiary countries, including the Philippines.