TOKYO, Japan — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has assured Filipinos that the investment pledges he and his delegation secured during the official visit here would be felt back home “very soon.”
Marcos said this in a video uploaded on his Instagram stories on Saturday, adding that the visit to Japan has been productive considering that the country was able to reestablish ties with the Imperial Family.
“It has been a productive visit and also, one of the highlights, of course, was my and the First Lady’s audience with Their Majesties, the Emperor and Empress, and it was a very great honor for us to be able to meet him and to again reestablish that connection between the Philippines and Japan,” Marcos said.
“And I think that we will be able to feel the effects of these discussions, of these agreements, very, very soon, very rapidly back home in the Philippines,” he added.
Marcos also mentioned the 35 agreements signed by the country’s private companies with the Japanese business firms, which are believed to bear fruit soon.
According to the Department of Trade and Industry, 120 Philippine companies and 1,300 Japanese firms — translating to over 3,472 business leaders — have been in attendance for several meetings here in Tokyo since Wednesday.
For this, Marcos said the Philippines owes Japan a debt of gratitude for its support to the former’s economic growth.
“Those relations have grown and have become deeper as time has gone on and we owe Japan a debt of gratitude for the support that they have given us in those years, even in the ‘60s, in the ‘70s, and all the way up to now, where they have supported our infrastructure development,” he said.
“They have supported our agriculture, they have supported our attempts at making the digitalization of the Philippines a more widespread phenomenon,” he added.
Marcos and the members of his delegation have had several discussions with companies from Japan, including those from the automotive, tourism, energy, semiconductor and electronics, and real estate industries, in hopes of bagging investment pledges to the Philippines.
As of now, no exact figure on the investment pledges has been released, but the PCO said it could amount to billions.
The President and his team are set to return to Manila on Sunday, after meeting members of the Philippine press and the Filipino community.
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