Phl embassy holds investment forum in Beijing

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine embassy held an investment forum in Beijing to encourage Chinese enterprises going overseas to take a closer look at the Philippines.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday the embassy, in partnership with the China Overseas Investment Exchange Center (COI), held the forum “Invest Philippines – Asia’s New Economic Tiger and China’s Partner Overseas” on June 26 at the embassy’s social hall.

It is the third investment forum that the embassy has organized since the start of this year.

Fifty-eight representatives of companies from the energy, technology, agriculture, trading, financial and export insurance, construction, legal services, media and entertainment, garments, mining and cultural arts industries participated in the forum.

In her opening remarks, Ambassador to Beijing Erlinda Basilio told Chinese enterprises that the Philippine economy has been experiencing stellar growth in recent years as a result of good governance, prudent fiscal management and business-friendly economic policies.

She shared experts’ projection that the Philippines would continue to reap in the coming decades economic dividends arising from favorable demographics because of the positive impact of a growing and more productive labor force.

She encouraged Chinese enterprises to avail themselves of the large pool of labor talent in the Philippines, partly since the China demographic has reached inflection point and has resulted in higher wages.

Basilio said potential complementarities between the Philippine and Chinese economies, with the latter having world-class industries and the former having gained international recognition for the quality and professionalism of its services sector.

Philippine enterprises are ideal partners to Chinese enterprises aspiring to be regional and global players, she added.