MANILA, Oct. 12 (PNA) -- President Benigno S. Aquino III welcomes the commitment of the Chinese business groups of venturing their investments in the country in the fields of tourism and energy, among others.
In an interview with the officers and members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) during the Annual Presidential Forum on Wednesday at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati City, the President said that there are several fields of investments to be filled in by a number of investors coming in the Philippines.
“With regards to other investment areas — and we did go to China, we agreed that this is but one part of the relationship with them — there is a commitment, for instance, to help us with our tourism industry. There are two major travel agencies — one of which owns its own airline and the other one is actually building two hotels already in the Philippines... so, the commitment to help us in our tourism industry is not just words but they’re actually undertaking it,” the President said.
“There are other ventures — heavy equipment and truck manufacturing are also set to commence with us — there are a whole slew of investors that are coming in apart from energy,” he added.
The Chief Executive added that apart from these businesses, the Chinese group is also extending assistance in other fields that include disaster mitigation and water resources management.
“They would also want to help us in terms of our energy, our water resource management, our disaster risk mitigation and we welcome all of these assistance,” President Aquino said.
It has been five years since a President attended the FOCAP to talk about pressing issues and discuss key policies of the government in efforts to shape the future of the country.
The President acknowledged FOCAP’s efforts to uphold the freedom of the press especially during the time of martial law.
“FOCAP has stood firmly for freedom of the press... they did this at the height of martial law — a time when doing so had severe repercussions — when journalists who were choosing to do the right thing were being thrown in prison or, worse, murdered in cold blood. And yet this organization has weathered plots to gag reporters, or corrupt them,” the President said.
Founded in 1974, the FOCAP is a non-profit organization of international news agencies, publications, radio and television networks.
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