President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. shared his vision of transforming the Philippine economy as he graced the New York Stock Exchange Economic Forum on Monday (Tuesday in Manila).
Marcos, who is on his second day in the U.S. as part of his six-day official trip, spoke about the various economic policies enacted in the Philippines that would help encourage more foreign investment.
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These include the laws lowering corporate income tax rates and rationalizing fiscal incentives, as well as allowing full foreign ownership of companies providing public services which, he said, is essential in achieving his administration's goal of transforming the economy.
"I used the word transform because it is my belief that the way to bring our economies back to the level of activity that we enjoyed before the pandemic, we have to understand that the global economy has changed," he told John Tuttle, New York Stock Exchange vice chairman.
"We have to position ourselves certainly to be able to take advantage of those changes to have a head start in the new economy that we are still, as of now, starting to form globally," he added.
Marcos said allowing foreign ownership of companies in the Philippines will pave the way for capital investments especially in the services sector, a main driver of the country's gross domestic product.
"I believe that if we continue down this road and we are able to attract investors to this new investing climate that we are starting to create in the Philippines... I think we could succeed but that just illustrates how important we consider that investment to the transformation of our economy," he said.
The New York Stock Exchange is considered to be the world's largest stock exchange based on the total market capitalization of its listed companies.
During his visit, Marcos also led the ringing of New York Stock Exchange trading floor bells, signalling the closing of the day's trading.
On Wednesday (Manila time), Marcos will participate in the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City and deliver a speech before foreign dignitaries.
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