The country’s biggest local business group rated President Marcos Jr.’s performance during his first 100 days in office as “positive,” indicating that the Philippines’ private sector is generally pleased with the current administration’s efforts to prop up the economy so far.
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) president George Barcelon said this on Wednesday, giving President Marcos an 8 out of 10 in terms of espousing business confidence in local firms.
“The first 100 days of the administration has actually been quite positive. As you can see, as I have mentioned earlier, the President has been putting in a lot of effort in having, again, the country in the radar,” Barcelon said in a press conference ahead of the 8th Philippine Business Conference & Expo which will be held from Oct. 19 to 20 at The Manila Hotel.
Barcelon said the President is set to have four more trips abroad to forge business links and economic cooperation with other countries.
“The momentum is there. The challenges that we face are not internally made [but] are really external factors,” he added.
He added that the laws given priority by the current administration during the President’s State of the Nation Address, as well as those highlighted during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting in July bode well for the private sector.
“The marching order of the President is to really have more economic activities, job opportunities,” he added, citing as well the projection that no Filipino would go hungry by the end of his term.
Wish list
The PCCI is set to present its policy recommendations to the government during the business conference next week, with Mr. Marcos expected to attend one of the largest gatherings of business executives this year.
Among the key issues that the PCCI expects to be discussed include strengthening fiscal and financial resilience, the private sector’s participation in infrastructure projects under a public-private partnership scheme, food production, energy and electricity costs and ease of doing business, among others.
PCCI honorary chair and treasurer Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said that the Philippine government usually adopts around 90 percent of their policy recommendations.
“[The government] normally requires us to send [the policy recommendations] two days before, which we already did,” Luis said, adding that some policy statements will be mentioned during the President’s speech.
The PCCI official added that the wish list is a result of the culmination of five regional conferences they held earlier this year. INQ