One gets a lot of negative vibe when perusing the front page of broadsheets lately. There’s the drug menace, killings, a bombing, and political accusations and tirades flying left and right.
Every change in administration always brings some form of hope or optimism, especially in how business is being done in the country, and this administration is no different.
Coming from the very-first business conference held in Davao in the days after the assumption to the presidency of Rodrigo Roa Duterte, businessmen are generally optimistic about what lies ahead, not just for big business which is a given, but more so for small to medium-scale enterprises or SMEs which is close to the heart of the President.
Thus, conferences or forums of the sort are like pockets of fresh air in an otherwise stale and smoggy hegemony.
One such “pocket” would have been the most-recent Philippine Investment Forum at the Shangrila at the Fort, Bonifacio Global City, organized by Euromoney, the world’s leading organizer of conferences for cross-border investment and capital markets for portfolio and direct investors, financial intermediaries, corporations, governments, banks and financial institutions. This conference was touted to be one of the first for international investors and business leaders under the new administration.
I had the privilege to be interviewed as a keynote by no less than Tony B. Shale (left), CEO of Euromoney Asia, where we discussed President Duterte’s 10-point social and economic agenda from the standpoint of First Pacific Company Limited and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation which I represented.
Both First Pacific and Metro Pacific have key investments in natural resources, telecommunications, power and energy, water, infrastructure, media, food and agribusiness, as well as hospitals and healthcare. Both First Pacific and Metro Pacific share the optimism of all that more investment opportunities are expected to come in with the change in administration.
Our discussion tackled such issues as the viability and sustainability of mining under this administration; forecasts for power and energy, infrastructure, water, and telecommunications; as well as a brief sidebar on food and agriculture. Of course, all of these had to be considered under the proposed over-arching federal form of government which we also discussed.
The Euromoney Investment Forum, now on its 5th year, gathered over 600 participants who were eager to listen to the President’s economic team present its strategic plan for business and investment for the next six years.