October 26, 2016 — President Rodrigo Duterte today invited Japanese businesses to consider the Philippines’ rural areas as he pushes to decentralize growth through sectors such as agriculture.

Duterte pointed to his home region of Mindanao and its bounties as among the potential businesses.

He said the country “need(s) to decentralize growth through agriculture development, particularly in the rural areas which are more dependent on agriculture, like Mindanao, that produce the country’s top agricultural exports such as bananas, pineapples, coconut, and tuna.”

The President also thanked the Japanese people for their help through infrastructure development projects.

The Philippines has received billions of dollars in aid from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

“Japan has the corresponding capacity to be our reliable and a partner in all its resources, expertise, and technical know-how,” Duterte said.

“We would like to see more investors and more businesses setting up shop in the Philippines,” he added.

Duterte also said his administration is “putting in place policies aimed at ensuring stability in the macro-economic policies, increasing competitiveness, improving ease of doing business, increasing spending in crucial infrastructure, and investing further in the human capital development.”