Thai businesses ready to invest in Philippines – Palace

BANGKOK – Thai firms are willing to invest in infrastructure, transportation, tourism and food security in the Philippines to enhance trade cooperation between the Philippines and Thailand, Malacañang said yesterday.

Kriengkrai Thiennukul, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, made the commitment during a roundtable conference attended by Thai business executives and Philippine officials last Saturday here. The Federation of Thai Industries is a non-profit organization representing the Thai industrial sector.

“We are ready to support… investing in food security and infrastructure such as transportation and promoting tourism with the Philippines to enhance the business sector for mutual expansion between the two countries in the future,” Thiennukul was quoted by a Palace statement as saying.

“We... support trade and investment and other cooperation activities. I am confident that the cooperation and the close relationship between Thailand and the Philippines will help us achieve our economies’ trade and investment objective and create mutual benefit for the two countries in the future,” the business leader added.

The Palace statement did not state figures on the amount of investments Thai businesses are ready to pour in the Philippines.

Stronger partnerships, Thiennukul said, would enable Manila and Bangkok to help each other bolster economic growth. He also mentioned some of the problems confronting Asian economies like the effect of climate change on the supply chain, the COVID-19 pandemic and global political instability.

“In this current situation, it is necessary to revitalize the economic sectors, especially the focus on sustainable development. We have the same goal to focus on the joint development of public health, especially in the ASEAN Framework,” Thiennukul said.

“The development of the digital economy, the use of the digitalization and implementation of BCG Model in the revitalizing the economy,” he said.

The conference was held on the last day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which was attended by leaders and key officials of its 21 member economies, including President Marcos.

Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual urged Thai businesses to take advantage of the Philippines’ improved business climate.

“Friends, the Philippines is open for business. I would like to reiterate that. We have undertaken a number of reforms to make the Philippines even more attractive for investors and businesses,” Pascual said.

The trade department cited some of the measures aimed at attracting investors, including laws that eased foreign ownership restrictions like the Public Service Act, Foreign Investment Act and the Retail Trade Liberalization Act. He also mentioned the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act or CREATE, which lowers corporate income tax and provides tier-specific incentives for foreign investors.

“Partners, one of our goals is to develop globally competitive and innovative industries that support inclusive and sustainable growth. For this, we’re also integrating trade, investment promotion and industry development policies,” Pascual said.

More opportunities

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president George Barcelon said Marcos’ attendance in the recently concluded 29th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting and his meetings with Thai business groups have opened up a lot of opportunities for the Philippines and Thailand to collaborate further.

“The President in the speech or the talk that we had with the Thai business… captains of various industries, was very frank. The President talked about… food security that (worries) the Philippines,” Barcelon, who was part of Marcos’ delegation here, was quoted by a Palace statement as saying.

“The fact that everything is twice as high due to the cause of various factors that are beyond our control. But… I think the President opens up that we can collaborate with Thailand,” he added.