Phl hopes to get global attention as investment site
SINGAPORE – The Philippines hopes to share the spotlight with Myanmar and get global attention anew as an investment site as President Aquino participates in the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia hosted by Naypyidaw for the first time.
Myanmar is opening its doors to senior decision-makers from industry, government, academe and civil society for the first time through the WEF on East Asia after a series of bold economic and political reforms in the country. Through this unique multi-stakeholder platform, the WEF said the meeting would be an “unrivaled” opportunity to understand and shape Myanmar’s ongoing reforms and reconciliation process ahead of Naypyidaw’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2014.
“It will have a critical role in guiding the bloc’s 10-member economies towards the planned economic integration in 2015,” the WEF said.
In this context, the WEF on East Asia would be an exceptional opportunity not only for leaders from the ASEAN region but also for those seeing ASEAN countries as a major evolving geopolitical and geo-economic pillar of global economy, it added.
Aquino will attend the WEF on East Asia in Naypyidaw tomorrow morning and take the opportunity to market the Philippines again to business delegates.
At the same time, Aquino will meet Myanmar leaders – President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ayala Corp. will host a luncheon for chief executive officers and other businessmen on the side of the WEF meetings to be attended by the President.
Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said President Aquino would invite investors to build infrastructure in the country and come into the agriculture and tourism sectors.
Aquino will also meet with Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.
The Philippines has been offered and has accepted the hosting of the WEF on East Asia next year.
At the closing plenary meeting, Aquino will share the stage with Schwab and the Myanmar leader.
The Aquino administration’s reform agenda is actually in tune with the WEF, which stresses the importance of developing infrastructure, tourism and agriculture in ASEAN to achieve growth that would provide jobs and thus be inclusive.
The WEF also stresses the need to do away with corruption, being a big business risk, and resolving internal conflicts in countries like Myanmar.
The WEF believes ASEAN countries and their integration can help drive progress but must be able to provide the correct environment for investments as developing economies.
Sushant Palakurthi Rao, senior director head of Asia, told Radio TV Malacañang in Naypyidaw that in terms of preparations, “clearly there were some aspects of logistics that we have to focus on which would be different, having a meeting in Naypyidaw versus in the past years in cities like Bangkok or Jakarta.”
“But we work very closely with the government to address some of the accessibility issues to get to Naypyidaw more quickly and faster, as well as to ensure that there is sufficient accommodation for almost 1,000 participants,” Rao said.
One key difference of this forum, according to Rao, was the fact that it was a larger meeting and “the fact that it’s gone up almost by 300 participants is a significant difference versus last year.”
“But I would also add that we have a higher percentage of representatives from civil society participating in this year’s meeting. And I think that is a reßection of the importance that is being laid on a lot of social development issues and economic development issues for Myanmar going forward,” he said.
Rao said there were three parts to the theme courageous transformation for inclusion and integration.
“The transformation of course speaks to what is happening here in Myanmar with the ongoing reform process. The inclusion part is the fact that while investments are expected to accelerate in the months and years ahead in Myanmar, it’s important to signal early on that this investment must be leverage responsibly for equitable growth and for inclusive growth, and that is very much at the heart of what we are discussing at this meeting,” Rao said.