Diokno: Marcos’ WEF debut ‘path-breaking’

DAVOS, Switzerland —President Marcos’ debut as Philippine CEO at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting is “path-breaking,” as he successfully portrayed a country with a fast-growing economy and a stable political environment.

This is according to Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who sees the country’s improved standing resulting in more investments.

“The President successfully pictured to the international community an economy that is fundamentally sound and is expected to have one of the highest growth rates in the Asia-Pacific region, if not the world,” Diokno said on Friday as the economic team prepared to wrap up their meetings here.

Further, Diokno said Mr. Marcos had likewise presented to the international community a politically stable country, whose leader was popularly elected by a great majority of its voting population, “with a frictionless and smooth transition of power.”

Stability

Diokno stressed that for investors, political stability was just as important as economic stability.

Mr. Marcos said on several occasions during various WEF meetings that the Philippine economy would grow by 7 percent this year, sustaining the expected pace of growth for the whole of 2022.

This would make the Philippines the fastest-growing economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and also one of the fastest in Asia-Pacific.

Diokno said Mr. Marcos had also shown that the Philippines was a country with strong support from its private sector partners, citing the active participation of leading Filipino business leaders in the recently held WEF meeting.

Impressive

“The active and enthusiastic participation of the Philippine business leaders in the WEF activities was truly impressive,” Diokno said.

Eight business tycoons formed Mr. Marcos’ WEF private sector delegation. Aside from the first seven who came earlier, PLDT and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. chief Manuel V. Pangilinan joined the delegation as well.

Other business leaders who supported Mr. Marcos here were Aboitiz Equity Ventures CEO Sabin Aboitiz, San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang, SM Investments Corp. vice chair Teresita Sy-Coson, Ayala Corp. CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel De Ayala, International Container Terminal Services CEO Enrique Razon Jr. JG Summit Holdings CEO Lance Gokongwei and Alliance Global Group CEO Kevin Tan.

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