MANILA -- Socioeconomic planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan assured the public on Wednesday on the benefits the country will gain from the Maharlika Investment Fund law, saying that the new law will not increase the country’s debt and put the economy at risk.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Republic Act (RA) 11954, or the Maharlika Investment Fund Law, yesterday, thus creating the country’s first-ever sovereign wealth fund.

Balisacan, who heads the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), said in a press briefing in Malacañang that those concerns will not happen by design “because the fund that we are putting in there are quite idle funds, not funds that (are) being utilized.”

“And what the fund is trying to do is to put those into more productive, higher yielding instruments so that you can earn more from those funds,” Balisacan told reporters.

“The other objective is to get co-investors, investment community, to invest into the projects supported by the fund so that the fund could grow bigger and support more projects.”

If the officers and the board will do their work properly and with proper governance structure, Balisacan said, it should be able to earn much more than what the Fund is being paid.

For debt, for instance, Balisacan said it is not meant “to add to the debt but rather to allow us to have other sources of fund so that, in fact, you can reduce your reliance on debt.”

With regard to the selection of its members, the NEDA chief said that with the law already signed by the President, there is a need to define and to develop the guidelines.

Those guidelines will have to be publicly accessible to ensure transparency, he said, noting the initiative will be a success because “we owe it to ourselves.”

“We need to get this economy going because, otherwise, maiiwanan pa tayo. Naiwanan na tayo and we don’t want to be left behind further,” Balisacan said.

“We want to catch up and we believe that this is one avenue, one additional pillar to—well, these pillars for developing, to get the economy moving forward – not just forward but to move fast. We’ll have to catch up with our neighbors.” PND