MANILA - President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday said the political noise has been bypassed by the investment community as the Filipino people have now entered "the frontier of peace, development, solidarity and prosperity."
Arroyo made the announcement in her address at the 28th Graduation Rites of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Sansiriningan Class 2007 at Camp Gen. Mariano Castaneda in Silang, Cavite, the government media said.
"The din of political noise has largely been bypassed by the investment community. We have crossed the sound barrier; we have entered the frontier of peace, development, solidarity and prosperity," she said as she expressed elation over the big surge of investments in the country in the past two months.
She said "the surge of investments is coming from all points of the compass, doubling in the first two months of 2007," in contrast to pronouncements of the administration critics that no investments, from both local and foreign, would be coming in due to the political noise.
"The trend is now clear that political stability and democratic continuity is a given for the Philippines and investors are putting their stake in our vision for the future," she said, adding that the government and all its institutions including the police, the fire departments, and the jail management bureau are closing ranks to clean up the mess of the past.
Arroyo explained that because of the successful implementation of her administration's strict reform and fiscal measures, the foreign community now views the Philippines as the next country in the Asian region to become a developed nation in the near future.
She said the government's focus in the economy is paying off in terms of a strong peso, low inflation rate, a robust stock market, rapid inflow of foreign investments and creation of over five million new jobs in the last six years.
"Our unemployment rate is the lowest in the long time and our poverty rate is at the lowest as well," she stressed.
"This is most of all a tribute to Filipinos here and abroad who have kept faith in the great potentials of our nation, a faith that has spread far and wide and across the Asia-Pacific," Arroyo said.
The President's speech hailing the brisk inflow of investments came on the heels of the report by the Department of Trade and Industry that investments in the Philippines increased by 125 percent to reach P26.8 billion in January-February 2007 compared with just P11.9 billion in the same period of last year.
DTI Secretary Peter Favila said that of the total amount, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) approved 80 projects worth P19.97 billion.
The Board of Investments (BOI), on the other hand, approved 49 projects with a total value of P6.81 billion.
Favila reported that China's property giant, the Shanghai-based Shimao Property Holdings Ltd., plans to invest US$ 2 billion-US$ 4 billion in hotels, entertainment and mixed development buildings for office, residential and commercial use in the Philippines, according to the Philippine News Agency.
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