Outgoing Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia Jr. hopes that the recent call of the US Secretary of Commerce for US firms to engage more in the infrastructure sector will mean greater investments for the Philippines.
The country’s infrastructure, especially its airport and mass transportation system, is regarded as one of the worst in the region.
With the government’s plan of hiking infrastructure spending to P900 billion next year and further increasing it to seven percent of the GDP by 2022, Cuisia believes that demand for infrastructure in the country is huge.
According to Cuisia, the Philippines only has “a very small portion” of the $200 billion US investment to the ASEAN. But he also said bilateral trade between the Philippines and US has been increasing and believes this trend will continue in the future.
The ambassador pointed out that the US-Philippine trade was only at $13 billion when he came to Washington in 2011 but by 2015 it was already at $18.2 billion.
