Opening Remarks of Trade and Industry Secretary Cristina A. High-Level Conference of Middle-Income Countries | Department of Trade and Industry Philippines

28 April 2025, 4:20 PM | Makati Shangri-La Hotel

Your Excellencies, esteemed panelists, partners from the private sector, colleagues from government and international organizations, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant afternoon to all of you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming and I’m very happy to be here. It’s nice to see familiar faces and nice to see new faces also as we really share our common goals and common, I mean, whatever we want to achieve for our country to be able to achieve and to be able to really reach greater heights.

So, it is with great honor to join you all here today to open this special session on the dialogue with private sector under the theme “Enabling Impactful Partnership for Sustainable Development.”

I really believe in partnership, especially strong and camaraderie among each other. That’s the only way for us to be able to work strongly together and for us to be able to achieve goals or to be able to move forward faster. I always tell my people, alone we can do so little but together we can do so much. We are always stronger together. We gather at a moment of profound global transition marked by uncertainty, yes, but also by immense opportunity we can unlock together.

Today, middle-income countries, MIC, make up 75% of the world’s population and around one-third of global GDP. Our economies are vibrant, our people increasingly empowered and our collective ambition to grow sustainably and inclusively is unmistakable. Therefore, collaboration is not only essential but is vital.

Today’s session rightly positions the private sector not at the sidelines but at the heart of development solutions. Under the directive of President Ferdinand

R. Marcos, Jr., our government is here to provide the support and environment to facilitate your success.

The Department of Trade and Industry is at the forefront of securing foreign investment. This is very important to us because aside from the income that it gives our country, it’s about jobs that we need. Because we send a lot of our people overseas to find jobs, so we want them to stay here with families. So this is something that we’re also pushing aggressively, the foreign trade and investment. This is especially true and we also push, I mean, micro, small and medium enterprises or the MSMEs, which are the backbone of the Philippine economy and of many economies in the Asia-Pacific region.

For the Philippines, the MSMEs, 99.5% of the business establishment and 60% of the workforce. So, this is a sector that we truly cannot ignore. With this, President Marcos’ administration through the DTI has developed a comprehensive and forward-looking micro, small and medium enterprise development plan 2023 to 2028, which we are pleased to highlight today. And for anyone that may need this, you may get a copy from the Department of Trade and Industry. This is not just a government roadmap, it is a whole-of-society movement to future-proof our MSMEs and fuel inclusive growth in line with our President’s vision for a Bagong Pilipinas, the New Philippines.

Again, let me be clear, the government cannot do this alone. We need all the help we can get from private sector to move forward towards an upper-middle income status, which is something that we, of course, want to achieve in this administration.

Before I end, let me reiterate one thing. When we support MSMEs, we are not just supporting businesses, we are supporting communities, empowering families and building a foundation for inclusive and lasting development.

Let us commit together to building a future where no entrepreneur is left behind and where public-private cooperation is the norm, not the exception. Together, let us Make It Happen in the Philippines. Thank you very much and I wish us all a productive and impactful session this afternoon. ♦

Date of Release: 28 April 2025

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