Duterte assures Saudi businessmen of return of investments if they’ll come to Philippines

April 14, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged businessmen from Saudi Arabia to come to the Philippines as he assured them of return on their investments. In a forum with the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce in Saudi Arabia on April 12, Duterte said there is no corruption in his administration. "So we come here to thank you personally the country, (the) Kingdom itself, and we would like to invite those who are interested to invest in the East ASEAN. We are just beginning to improve on our laws that would admit with liberal, make easy for you to enter the Philippines and do business," he said. "And we make it easy for you to do business in the Philippines. You are guaranteed of your return on investments and for whatever," he said. Duterte said it is important for the government to create more jobs for Filipinos. "We need investments in my country, and if you may want to go there and invest, we can give you the best place and best advice to go about earning in my country," Duterte said. He told the businessmen that the Philippines is really agriculture based. "And so the greatest promise of trade would really be food, and we are expanding our halal industry. We hope that someday our products will find their way in that is acceptable by your standards. We will comply with all the requirements of your importations. There is no doubt about it," he said. Duterte said the Philippines will continue to "export" human resource to Saudi Arabia. "I said I hope that we have contributed to the movement of the economy here by the workforce, the human resource, that we provided. I would like also from the bottom of my heart to say thank you for helping us," he said. Saudi Arabia is the top destination of overseas Filipino workers, according to government data. (Celerina Monte/DMS)