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President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed investments worth P86 billion ($1.53 billion) through 12 business deals during the Philippine Business Forum in Melbourne, Australia on March 4
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Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the deals span sectors such as renewable energy, waste-to-energy technology, organic recycling, countryside housing, data centers, health technology solutions, and digital health services
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They include 10 memoranda of understanding and two letters of intent covering areas like data center development, battery manufacturing, and decarbonization solutions
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed investments worth P86 billion (US$1.53 billion) through 12 business deals during the Philippine Business Forum in Melbourne, Australia on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, on March 4.
The pacts span sectors such as renewable energy, waste-to-energy technology, organic recycling, countryside housing, data centers, health technology solutions, and digital health services, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said in a speech.
The 12 deals include 10 memoranda of understanding and two letters of intent covering areas like data center development, battery manufacturing, decarbonization solutions, electric transportation framework, housing initiatives, plastic waste recycling, defibrillator manufacturing, waste-to-energy technology transfer, and digital health services expansion.
Some highlights of the MOUs include the development of a Tier-3 Data Center in the Poro Point Freeport Zone, expansion of next-generation battery manufacturing, deployment of decarbonization solutions for New Clark City Stadium and other Bases Conversion and Development Authority sites, including collaborative partnership on an Electric Transportation Framework, along with Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino/Countryside Housing Initiatives, establishment of plastic waste collection centers and recycling facilities, manufacturing of Automated External Defibrillator solutions, and the transfer of waste-to-energy technology to the Philippines by the National Development Company.
Commitment of Macquarie Group
Meanwhile, Marcos also secured the commitment of Australia’s Macquarie Group Ltd. to invest in the renewable energy, value-added mining and digitalization in the Philippines during the sidelines of his participation to the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne on March 5.
“I am excited to talk about what more we can be doing in the Philippines because at the moment we do advisory work in investment bank, we bring our balance sheet to invest in,” Macquarie Group Managing Director and CEO Shemara Wikramanayake told Marcos.
“The whole digitization process, we’re excited about. Also, the energy transition we’re excited about … we certainly invest in digitization and we invest in energy transition and in mining and building bigger advisory business,” she added.
Wikramanayake said they are interested in investing in the Philippines due to its demographic profile for having “a young and growing population,” which is “a bigger opportunity in terms of growth and organization” of their company in the Philippines.
Wikramanayake met with President Marcos as she discussed their interests in energy transition, mining and digitalization process. She said Macquarie Group provides sufficient funds not only in the US and Europe, but also in Southeast Asia.
