JAPANESE firm Mitsui & Co. will be investing at least US$600 million in the country for infrastructure development.
In a press statement on Sunday, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) disclosed that Mitsui will partner with Filipino tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan for the infrastructure project.
Pangilinan announced during the just-concluded five-day official visit of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to Japan that he has signed an agreement with Mitsui for a project.
Aside from infrastructure, Mitsui is considering additional investments in other sectors.
“Mitsui & Co., meanwhile, also eyes investments in priority sectors of the administration of President Marcos, particularly in agriculture, infrastructure and renewable energy,” the PCO said.
Marcos lauded Mitsui for being among the Japanese firms, who announced their timely decision to invest in the country to help in the government’s ongoing pandemic recovery initiatives.
“It is a particularly auspicious time that we come again now simply because we have to now restart our own economies, we have to transform our economies, and again the partnerships, I think, that we have developed with our friends here in Japan, with Mitsui in particular… we will have to revitalize them as they have been dormant, to a degree, during the lockdowns of the pandemic,” Marcos said.
In Japan, Marcos witnessed the signing of 35 letters of intent (LOI)/ agreements by Japanese firms with government and members of the private sector.
The deals cover a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, infrastructure development, energy, transportation, healthcare, renewable energy, and business expansion.
This was on top of the seven agreements signed by the Philippine and Japanese governments on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, infrastructure, agriculture, and digital cooperation.