The Employers Confederation of the Philippines hailed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s constant foreign trips as a “key” to boosting the country’s economy.
ECOP and Philippine Exporters Confederations Inc. (Philexport) President Sergio Ortiz-Luiz Jr. on Friday said that the President’s foreign trips help generate jobs and investment.
In recent data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Philippines’ employment rate increased by 95.5% in June.
“Unang-una talaga tuloy-tuloy ‘yung pag-alis natin doon sa pandemic era at tuloy-tuloy ang pag-hire. Ang gobyerno naman tuloy-tuloy ang pag-encourage ng investment, at maraming biyahe ni Presidente,” he said during a public briefing. (We continue to move on from the pandemic era and we continue our hiring. The government is in encouraging more investment and more foreign trips for the President.)
He added that different business groups were all enticed to commit to investment after every travel of President Marcos. Among the industries that generated more jobs are construction, agriculture, administrative and food services, and public administration and defense on the government side, the ECOP head said.
Ortiz-Luiz added that they are cooperating with the various government agencies and private sectors to generate one million jobs.
Meanwhile, the administration’s economic managers said that government spending will be accelerated in the upcoming quarters to allow the nation to adjust to its growth momentum after the country recorded a 4.3 percent economic expansion in the second quarter of 2023.
“While government expenditure contracted by 7.1 percent in the absence of election-related spending in the first half of the year, government spending will accelerate in the coming quarters to allow us to recover our growth momentum,” the administration’s economic managers said in a joint statement.
The administration economic team is consisting of officials from the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Finance, and the National Economic and Development Authority.