MORE than 250,000 jobs will be created in the next two years as a result of the $1.85 billion worth of deals signed by President Rodrigo Duterte during his trip to Japan, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Tuesday.
He told CNN Philippines the economic deals with Japan would help Duterte’s “pivot to Asia” following his intention to “separate” from the United States economically and to instead rely on the Philippines’ regional partners.
“The President is really trying to strengthen the regional cooperation within this part of the world,” Lopez said.
During the President’s trip to Japan, more than 12 letters of interest were signed among private companies, including in the $19 billion worth of deals that Duterte and his delegation brought home a week ago.
Of that amount, $17 billion represents a verbal pledge from Marubeni Corp. to contribute to medium-term infrastructure projects like roads and airports.
Duterte had previously returned with $13.5 billion worth of deals from China.
Lopez said the government would exercise due diligence in choosing the partnerships to enter into as he denied forging deals with companies blacklisted by the World Bank.
“Given that new information, obviously we’ll have to review what’s on the table,” Lopez said.
He said any deal with some companies implicated in onerous transactions would not be binding.
Duterte is set to visit Malaysia next week.