Villafuerte: Easing of Covid curbs generate more FDIS

THE decision by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to ease Covid-19 protocols and reopen the country to tourists and investors in the first semester of his presidency has begun generating more foreign direct investments (FDI) and putting our economy on the mend, hence keeping it on its upward trajectory this 2023 despite an impending global recession, Camsur Rep. and National Unity Party (NUP) President Lray F. Villafuerte said.

“The most remarkable feat of President [Ferdinand] Marcos [Jr.] thus far comprise his decisive moves on the public health and economic fronts that sent a loud and clear message to the world that the Philippines has reopened fully for business on his watch despite the lingering Covid-19 pandemic,” Villafuerte was quoted in a statement as saying.

“Complementing such initiatives were the President’s aggressive pitch in his overseas trips for the Philippines as an Asian business hub with investor-friendly policies plus a young and dynamic labor force,” he added.

The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines has claimed that FDI inflows would reach $128 billion by the end of 2030.

Villafuerte said these have led to $23.6 billion worth of investment pledges that will for sure energize domestic economic activity in 2023, create a lot of jobs and “improve the living standards of many of our people.”

The lawmaker expressed confidence that the Marcos administration can keep the Philippines on highgrowth mode in 2023 and onwards partly because of the President’s apt decision to sustain the unprecedented level of mega investments of the past administration in public infrastructure, “considering that infra spending has the highest multiplier effect on the economy.”

Back in business

CITING a Department of Budget and Management (DBM) report, Villafuerte said the Marcos government has allocated an amount equivalent to 5 percent to 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to spend on infrastructure and other capital outlay projects.

Proof of the continued high infrastructure spending under the Marcos administration was that completed infrastructure projects went up by 39.3 percent in September alone as National Government (NG) expenditures for this sector plus other capital outlay projects rose to P99.1 billion in September from the year-ago’s P71.2billion disbursements, he said.

Villafuerte added that “the Chief Executive’s bold one-two move to issue Executive Order [EO] 3 lifting the mandatory use of facemasks outdoors and, later, EO 7 relaxing the masking mandate indoors along with easing the Covid-19 tests and other strict health protocols for inbound travelers had delivered the message that the Philippines was back in business after reopening its doors wide to tourists and investors alike.”

The former Camsur governor said that the Chief Executive “has transformed himself into the country’s topmost salesman in his overseas trips over the July-december period by making a consistent, vigorous pitch for investments.”

Estimates by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and private analysts have put GDP growth at 6 percent to 7 percent this year, on the back of sustained domestic consumption and investments, Villafuerte said.

Tourism receipts

AS a result of the relaxed Covid-19 health protocols, Villafuerte said the Department of tourism( dot) reported that the number of visitor arrivals soared to 2.46 million by November 2022, or nearly 45 percent higher than the original target of 1.7 million, and expected to hit 2.5 million by enddecember—from just 164,000 international visitors in 2021.

Tourism receipts consequently went up to P149 billion from the 2.46 million tourists, hence living up to the Chief Executive’s perception—as he mentioned in his speech before the Philippine Tourism Industry Convergence Reception (PTICR) at the SMX Convention Center last October—of this industry becoming one of the potential drivers of the country’s economic transformation under his presidency.

Prior to the issuance of EOS 3 and 7, Villafuerte had said that the easing of anti-covid health protocols “would attract more tourists and boost Philippine tourism, which is integral to the country’s quick and robust recovery from the global economic and health crises wrought by the once-in-a-century pandemic.”

The best argument that the President and his economic managers had made the right steps in driving an economic turnaround on his watch, said Villafuerte, was the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’S forecast upgrade that our economy would grow 7.4 percent in 2022, from its lower forecast in September of 6.5 percent, on the belief of ADB Philippines country director Kelly Bird of “a strong underlying growth momentum and resilience” that was “expected to continue in 2023, with GDP growth converging towards its longer-term growth rate of about 6 percent.”

Big achievement

VILLAFUERTE said the numerous forecasts for the Philippines to remain on high-growth mode in 2023 was a big achievement for the Marcos administration, as international experts like the British consultancy Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) see the world as heading to a recession amid contractions among many economies that will be forced to continue raising borrowing costs to fight still-elevated inflation and pull down prices to more comfortable levels.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier predicted that over a third of the world ’s economies would suffer economic contractions, with a 25 percent possibility that the global GDP would grow in 2023 by less than 2 percent.

A combination of higher prices and interest rates, continued coronavirus lockdowns in China and geopolitical risks like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could exacerbate global supply chain disruptions and slow down the growth of the world economy, said Villafuerte.

“But thanks to the correct policies of the President and his economic managers, experts believe that the Philippines has been shielded from an impending slowdown of the global economy and, even better, is projected to remain as one of the fastest-growing economies, if not the fastest-growing economy, in the region this 2023,” he said.

He noted that the New York-based credit rater Moody’s Investors Service projected the Philippines to record the fastest GDP growth in the Asia-pacific region in 2023 at 6.4 percent, followed by Vietnam (6.1 percent), China (5.1 percent), Indonesia (4.7 percent) and Thailand (3.9 percent).

Second fastest

THE Maybank Investment Banking Group predicted GDP expansion of the Philippines to become the second fastest (after Vietnam) in the region and above the average of the ASEAN-5 (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for both 2022 and 2023.

S&P Global Ratings said in a report that domestically led economies like the Philippines, India and Indonesia are likely to raise the average growth rate in the Asia-pacific region because of strong consumption.

In their November Market Call report, the First Metro Investment Corp. and University of Asia and the Pacific (FMIC-UA&P) saw our GDP growing by 7.4 percent mainly because of strong third-quarter growth and record employment levels.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the employment rate improved by 95.5 percent to 47.11 million jobs in October 2022, or up from 43.82 million a year ago or an increase of about 3.2 million jobs.

The unemployment rate also went down by 4.5 percent to 2.24 million Filipinos from the 3.5 million unemployed in October 2021, said the PSA.

It said this unemployment rate last October was back to the prepandemic level of 4.5 percent in October 2019.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has reported that excluding President Marcos’ trip to Belgium in December to attend the Asean-eu Commemorative Summit in Brussels, his slew of top-level meetings with business groups and investors in Indonesia, Singapore, the United States, Cambodia and Thailand yielded combined investment pledges of $23.6 billion.