From the Land of the Rising Sun

Some people go to Japan and bring home anything and everything Japanese – from matcha to kimono to sake. For President Marcos, however, it’s billions in investments and more.

Indeed, following a five-day official visit to Japan, Marcos has trumpeted the billions in investments he brought home, as well as a stronger relationship with Japan, an old-time Philippine ally.

Indeed, we can only hope that Marcos’ recent visit to the Land of the Rising Sun would be good for the country, especially in terms of economic cooperation, security and defense cooperation and investments.

Investments In the area of investments, Philippine companies signed 35 agreements with their Japanese counterparts in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture, energy, transportation, manufacturing and health care. It’s the reason why it seemed that nearly every tycoon in the country joined the trip.

This could only be good – $13 billion worth of investments, Marcos said, which he added would create 24,000 jobs. Of course, it is important to put this in its proper context.

These deals have actually been under negotiations for quite some time now between Philippine companies and their Japanese partners. Some may have started during the time of the Aquino and Duterte administrations or even way before.

Therefore, some of the deals had nothing to do with Marcos’ visit but were signed just the same at the time of the visit, as was also the practice of other presidents during their presidential visits.

Nonetheless, these agreements are important and they cover important areas such as infrastructure, energy, automotive, electronics and property. Said Marcos upon arrival: “I think there was – all of the projects that were in the pipeline, I think we were able to finalize all of them on this trip. So that’s a good result, I think, from this trip.”

I got hold of a two-page list of the deals signed during Marcos’ trip and here are some of the bigger deals: GT Capital’s property development project with

Nomura Real Estate. No business trip to Japan would of course be complete without the Ty Group.

Tycoon Alfred Ty led the signing of the property development agreement between Nomura Real Estate Development and the Ty’s GT Capital Holdings as well an agreement for Toyota Motor Corp.’s light commercial vehicle manufacturing project.

DoubleDragon Corp.’s Hotel Niseko. And then there’s the holding company of tycoon Edgar “Injap” Sia II which signed an agreement with Japanese contractor Iwata Chizaki Inc. for the construction of its upcoming Hotel101-Niseko in Hokkaido Japan. Injap and his DoubleDragon co-chairman Tony Tan Caktiong signed the agreement in Tokyo with Iwata Keigo, president and CEO of Iwata Chizaki, the same contractor who built the Chitose International Airport in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

The signing moves DoubleDragon closer to building Hotel101-Niseko, which will be the first Hotel101 outside the Philippines. Injap’s plan is to establish Hotel101 globally as the homegrown Filipino hotel brand similar to brands of other countries such as Holiday Inn for the US, Novotel for Europe and Jinjiang Inn for China.

Filinvest and Hitachi. Also on the list of signed agreements is that of Filinvest Development Corp. and Hitachi, which is for the development, construction and operation of desalination facilities to supply potable water in Metropolitan Cebu.

Filinvest Development Corp. president Josephine Gotianun-Yap said that about 120,000 households in over 40 barangays in the cities of Cebu, Talisay and Lapu-lapu are expected to benefit from the project.

Tamiya. For the Tamiya generation like me, another good news is Tamiya’s plan to build a new, P1.5-billion factory in Cebu for plastic models and remote control cars.

The new factory would increase output by five percent over three years and increase capacity by 20 percent, depending on demand.

There are many more agreements concluded during the visit and they are expected to help boost our economy although I repeat, these deals were months and even years in the making.

But kudos to the many nameless staff from the respective embassies, our Philippine embassy in Tokyo and the Japan embassy in the Philippines, who worked tirelessly in arranging the signing of the different business deals during Marcos’ visit.

Defense

In the area of defense, Marcos’ visit also yielded defense support from Japan, which can only be good for the Philippines in light of the increasingly challenging regional security environment. What does this mean in concrete terms? This means completing transfer of air-surveillance radars systems, and for its related personnel training.

Japan is also providing support to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) through training and equipment. I believe this is particularly important, now regional and maritime security is becoming increasingly important.

Economic cooperation Last but perhaps the most important is in the area of economic cooperation. Japan seeks to contribute to supporting the infrastructure program of the Marcos administration. It also announced ODA/private investment commitments amounting to the equivalent of P250 billion for 2022 to 2023.

And then there’s the signing of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) loan of P112 billion and another P45 billion for the extension project.

Japan also pledged to provide a post-disaster standby loan amounting to P12.5 billion and additional loan for MRT-3 rehabilitation.

It is important to note that most loans from Japan have concessional conditions such as 0.1 percent interest for 40 years with a 10-year grace period (for the NSCR) and a more concessional condition of 0.01 percent for the postdisaster loan.

Stronger ties

In all, Marcos’ visit to Japan reflects the strong ties between Manila and Tokyo. I hope the ties continue to strengthen, especially to uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy and respect for human rights. * * *