MANILA, Nov. 26 (PNA) — Foreign direct investments (FDIs) to the Philippines are expected to increase vis-à-vis the country’s hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit Meetings 2015.
Oxford Business Group (OBG) Country Director Lauren Denny said the country would be able to present its competitiveness during the year-long event, thus, further cementing the country’s strong domestic expansion.
“With integration drawing closer, all eyes will be on the Philippines in 2015, when it hosts the 23rd APEC Summit meetings,” she said at the sidelines of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing between OBG and the Investor Relations Office (IRO) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas held in Manila Wednesday.
OBG forecasts the Philippines to post the highest growth among Southeast Asian countries for 2014 at 6.2 percent.
As of the first half of the year, the domestic economy grew, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), by six percent.
This is lower compared to year-ago’s 7.8 percent largely because of the impact of the devastation in Eastern Visayas after it was hit by one of the world’s strongest cyclone, Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), in November 2013.
Economic managers believe that domestic growth in the second half of the year would be higher due in part to infrastructure projects in Yolanda-affected areas.
“With government and business leaders around the globe visiting the Philippines in 2015 for the year-round meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the country has a chance to market itself to even more investors in a wide-range of sectors,” said IRO Executive Director Editha Martin.
APEC involves Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam.
Martin also said that aside from the APEC Summit meetings, the country will also benefit from the looming economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which will start in 2015 and wherein the Philippines is a member.
The integration will pave the way for the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), targeted to increase FDIs and income of the member-countries by removing restrictions of cross-border trade and investments.
Meanwhile, OBG is set to release its annual report on the Philippines dubbed “The Report: The Philippines 2015” the first quarter of next year.
The Report, which will be distributed to clients in and out of the country, is expected to highlight the rise of infrastructure projects in the country.
The IRO, a unit under the BSP, has signed its sixth MOU with OBG to help the latter access statistics and information about the Philippine economy.
“During our years of partnering with Oxford Business Group, we have tracked several of the Philippines’ milestones, including the country’s successful efforts to attract investors despite a challenging global economic climate,” Martin said. (PNA)