Trade chief presents ‘Dutertenomics’ to Russian businessmen

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez has presented to Russian businessmen the ‘Dutertenomics’ and business opportunities in the Philippines in a two-day business fora here. (PNA photo)

MOSCOW—Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez has presented to Russian businessmen the ‘Dutertenomics’ and business opportunities in the Philippines in a two-day business fora here.

Lopez brought the ‘Dutertenomics’ — the Duterte administration’s socioeconomic agenda that aims to ease doing business in the country to attract more investments and create quality jobs for Filipinos — from Moscow on Thursday to St. Petersburg on Friday.

The trade chief described ‘Dutertenomics’ as President Rodrigo Duterte’s push for a better quality of life for all Filipinos, as well as growth with equity, to address inequality and reduce poverty.

He said a big part of the ‘Dutertenomics’ is to close the infrastructure gap by spending more in public infrastructure.

From 5.0 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), the government targets to increase expenditure to 7.0 percent of GDP in the next five years, allotting some USD160 billion for infrastructure projects.

Lopez noted that the administration’s infrastructure agenda offers opportunities which Russian investors could explore.

Aside from infrastructure, Russian businessmen also have opportunities in the Philippines in such priority sectors as services, manufacturing, agribusiness, logistics, and tourism.

“Opportunities really abound. Starting from scratch, from ground zero. And just from the first meeting this recent past few days, we have noticed an immediate good chemistry between the business community from both Philippines and Russia,” Lopez said.

“We expect the huge potential to really happen because of the much-improved ties of our leaders.”

For Russian Ministry of Economic Development Deputy Minister Alexander Tsybulskiy, he said Russia would like to diversify its relations with the Philippines, particularly in economic cooperation.

Tsybulskiy mentioned that the Philippines is an interesting market with its economic growth, one of the fastest growing economies in the region.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the business fora, a total of USD875 million (about PHP44 billion) worth of business-to-business deals were signed by Filipino and Russian businesses.

More than 200 Philippine-based businessmen attended the business fora here. They are into construction, infrastructure, logistics, services, IT, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, energy, and mining.