PNoy hopes for more investments from Japan

President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday said he is hoping to exceed the $2.4 billion worth of investments that he secured from the US, when he flies to Japan Thursday to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. The President said that aside from the APEC summit, he also has meetings with heads of three large Japanese corporations who are planning to invest in the Philippines. "I understand that there are several billion dollars worth of investments [from Japan], bigger [than] what we have brought from America," Aquino said in an interview with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Tuesday. Aquino did not disclose which corporations are interested in investing in the Philippines. Along with the $2.4 billion worth of investments, Aquino and his delegation also brought home from the US the commitment to have 43,000 jobs generated within three years and a $434-million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corp. for social welfare programs. During his speech at the naming and delivery ceremony of the Tenshu Maru SC-185 DWT Cape Size bulk carrier in Cebu on Wednesday, Aquino reiterated his wish for more foreign investments in the Philippines. "God willing, we will be bringing home more good news from the private companies of one of our longest-standing partners, Japan, and from the rest of our allies around the world," he said. "We are hoping, with great optimism, to bring home more jobs for our people and more revenue to the national coffers, which can now be safely and directly put in its rightful place: into crucial services for the Filipino, which will sow the seeds for a better future for the coming generations," the President said. Aquino noted that investor confidence appears to have grown since he took over the presidency because of his commitment to fight corruption. "We have certainly come a long way. It seems only some time ago that we saw paper boats being ceremoniously set adrift on the Pasig River, and bore witness to the emptiness of its promise. Now, we are formally naming the biggest ship ever to be made in a Philippine shipyard," he said, apparently alluding to the Bangkang Papel reference in one of the State of the Nation Addresses of his predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The bulk carrier was built by the Tsuneishi Heavy Industries and the Cebu-based Aboitiz group. Aquino also attended in Cebu the opening of the 400-room Radisson Blu Hotel, owned by SM Investments Corp. that teamed up with the Carlson group, owner and operator of the international chain Carlson Hotels. -- JE/OMG, GMANews.TV