Business opportunities in the Philippines

The Philippines is one of the fast-growing economies in the Asia Pacific region, due to its robust consumer demand, sound foreign investments, a young demographic and a rich talent pool of skilled and professional workers. In 2021 and 2022, the Philippines posted growth rates of 5.6% and 7.6%, respectively. Growth projections for the Philippines by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is at 5.7% in 2023 and 6.2% in 2024, while the World Bank (WB) expects the Philippines to grow by 6% in 2023 and 5.9% in 2024. The Philippines aims to become an upper middle-income economy by 2025.

With the growing interest from Finnish companies, and to further strengthen economic and investment cooperation between the two countries, plans are in place to re-open the Philippine Embassy in Helsinki in 2024.

In January 2023, the Philippines and Finland conducted the 7th iteration of its Political Consultations in Manila, to discuss the entire spectrum of bilateral cooperation. These included smart, green, and digital technologies as well as digitalisation in support of the Philippines’ transition to a smart, green, and digital economy, as well as help it address climate change.

This focus on green technology and digitalisation, is in line with the priority sectors mentioned by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. during his first State of the Nation Address, when he emphasized the use of digital technology particularly in government services as well as building on research and development on quantum computing, artificial intelligence, nano technologies, the internet of things, robotics, self-driving electric vehicles, 3D printing, and Virtual and Augmented Reality.

As such, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the government agency tasked to plan, develop, and promote the national ICT development agenda, is looking for partners to ICT projects listed here.

If interested or for any queries, please contact:

Mr. Pat Lester F. Solosa
Third Secretary and Vice Consul
Embassy of the Philippines in Sweden
E-mail address: pat.solosa@dfa.gov.ph