Palace vows to further improve investment climate in PH

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Saturday said it will continue to work to improve the country’s business environment and attract more foreign investments as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported increased Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in 2013.

Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the country’s export industry has also increased.

“It’s on a continued upward trajectory, and we’d want to see those numbers continue, or at least, to grow even bigger. In all the score cards that we’ve seen, the view of the international community as far as our competitiveness is that it is going up,” Valte said on radio.

Valte, however said, the government also wants to pay special attention on areas that need further improvement.

“The President has always emphasized the need for a level-playing field when it comes to foreign or local investments. Those who are already here, who are seeking to expand and those who are outside but would want to place their investments here would see that they will get a pretty level playing field,” she said.

The BSP on Friday said it registered net FDI of $3.361 billion for the first 10 months of 2013, up 35.3 percent compared to the same period in 2012 which is  $2.485 billion.

Foreign investors continue to have confidence in the sustainability of the Philippine’s business environment, the BSP said in a statement.

The BSP added that the notable rise in foreign investments reflects favorable investor sentiment noting that macroeconomic stability is believed to be firmly rooted in the country’s basic fundamentals.

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