Investment opportunities in Israel

DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual said there are many investment opportunities for business partners in Israel.

Speaking at the 26th general membership meeting of the Israel Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Pascual said that Israeli investors continue to find the Philippines a suitable destination for investments.

“Through similar initiatives, Israel — which is at the forefront of innovative capacity — and the Philippines — a developing country that has set innovation as its national priority — may explore reinforcing their collaboration to pave the way for groundbreaking technologies and products,” Pascual said.

He also mentioned that the opportunity for Israel and the Philippines to work together lies in DTI’s strategic priority to reconfigure Philippine export sectors into industry clusters and position the manufacturing sector in areas where the Philippines has strategic advantages.

“The DTI will reconfigure its exports sector to prioritize the industrial sectors in three clusters: industrial, manufacturing and transport (IMT) cluster; technology, media and telecommunication (TMT) cluster; and the health and life science (HLS) cluster,” he explained.

Pascual said the IMT cluster provides the Philippines with upgrading opportunities in aerospace, automotive and semiconductors. Israel will be able to partner here to help expand and develop the IMT cluster.

In the TMT cluster, it will provide the Philippines opportunities from the digitization of services. This refers to data centers, the BPO (business process outsourcing) sector, hyperscalers and other things related to digitization.

The HLS cluster, which plays a strategic security role due to the recent effects of the pandemic, is another priority that Israeli businessmen should look into. Pascual emphasized that no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has made it a personal priority to develop health and life sciences in order to give Filipinos the best health care under PhilHealth.

Pascual said the DTI will implement measures to foster greater investment and competition in logistics and connectivity services to ensure smooth transactions for investors.

“To conclude, our roadmap to economic transformation is characterized by an understanding of the need to be responsive to business opportunities and by an urge to let science, technology and innovation drive our growth. Let us strengthen the collaboration between companies from the Philippines and Israel. I assure you, we can make it happen in the Philippines,” he said.