Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
President Marcos has returned to the country after his weeklong visit to the United States, which, he said, was productive.
The plane carrying Marcos and the entire Philippine delegation landed at the Villamor Airbase at 9:44 p.m. Monday.
Marcos said his three-city visit to the US, which included San Francisco and Los Angeles in California, and Honolulu, Hawaii, gave him an opportunity to meet with several world leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, Peru President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra, US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral John Aquilino.
“Our discussions, of course, were very productive with innovation, resilience, sustainability and inclusiveness as cross cutting themes that are buttressed by our commitment to further strengthening cooperation and to address challenges that are common to all our economies both economic challenges and security challenges,” Marcos said in his arrival speech.
“This reinforce my discussion with leader during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in which I pushed for our priorities in clean, renewable, and just, accessible, affordable energy, food security, health systems, digitalization, and digital transformation, and digital inclusion of MSMEs and of course climate action through regional cooperation,” he added.
The President reported that during his weeklong working visit to the US, they were able to identify concrete ways forward. One of the most important, he said, was the signing of the so-called 123 Agreement, a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States that paves the way for potential nuclear power projects with American providers.
He also highlighted that he signed on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) supply chain agreement to improve supply chain transparency and enable sustainable industry development.
“I also met a number of US companies that are looking to enter Philippine market as well as further expand those that have an existing presence and operations in our country,” he said.
Among them are leading technology companies and investors from Silicon Valley. He further said that he concluded his third trip to the US with a number of Public-Private Partnership agreements with US companies in various areas.
“Altogether, we return to the Philippines with more or less $670 million in investment pledges that have the potential to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs for Filipinos within our country,” he said.
“We look forward to seeing more of these partnerships materialize in the months again,” he added.
READ MORE: Marcos secures $672.3-M investment pledges in 3rd US trip
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Credit belongs to: www.mb.com.ph
