MANILA -- The country’s Economic Team successfully briefed the international business and finance communities on the country’s robust economic performance and investment opportunities during the first international Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) of the Marcos Jr. administration, hosted by the Department of Finance (DOF) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in Singapore on August 7.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered the keynote speech and highlighted the Philippines as Asia’s fastest rising star: “In the next few years, our economy is expected to outperform our regional peers.”

Meanwhile, DOF Secretary Benjamin Diokno delivered the keynote for the first panel discussion on Economic Performance and Outlook, underscoring that this is the best time to invest in the Philippines: “Our economic prospects are bright and promising. The country's solid macroeconomic fundamentals reinforced by structural reforms enabled us to withstand the headwinds of the pandemic and mount a strong recovery.”

He further shared how the Philippines’ growth outlook is supported by the full reopening of the economy and key structural reforms including the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, the Amendments to the Foreign Investments Act, Amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, and Amendments to the Public Service Act.

The Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, dubbed as the “largest fiscal stimulus program for enterprises in the country’s history” is aimed to provide “hefty corporate income tax rate cuts” and “more flexibility in the grant of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.”

To complement these structural reforms, the Finance Secretary also shared the economic team’s Medium-Term Fiscal Framework which will serve as the blueprint to reduce fiscal deficit, promote fiscal sustainability, and enable robust economic growth.

“We face the next six years with full confidence in our bold socioeconomic agenda,” the Finance Chief underscored.

BSP Governor Felipe Medalla, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Department of Budget and Management Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman, and SM Investments Corp. Vice Chair Teresita Sy-Coson joined the Finance Chief in the panel discussion.

The PEB in Singapore was conducted in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy Singapore and the Philippine Trade and Investment Centre Singapore, together with partner banks namely, BoFa Securities, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, SMBC Nikko, Standard Chartered Bank, and UBS. (DBM)