SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Monday said the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) would soon play a bigger role in the country’s development through earnings from stocks that would be used for projects to spur business activities, create more jobs, and implement needed social programs.
The Speaker issued this prediction in his keynote speech during the inauguration of the PSE Event Hall and Ayala Corporation’s follow-on offering listing ceremony at the PSE Tower in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.
Congratulating the people behind the PSE for another milestone in its history, the Speaker stressed the belief of the House in the capital market and the indispensable role it plays in the country’s economic recovery and development.
“Our strong belief in the important role of capital markets in supporting the national development agenda is also the driving force behind our proposed establishment of the Maharlika Investment Fund,” Romualdez said.
“The corporation that will be created to manage the Maharlika Investment Fund will invariably look to the PSE in its search for blue chip investment opportunities, from which handsome dividends may be generated – dividends which shall be channeled to fund the government’s strategic social programs towards the achievement of the nation’s larger development goals,” he added.
It could be recalled that the House approved via an overwhelming majority vote the Maharlika Investment Fund bill in December last year.
The Senate is expected to pass its own version of the measure before the sine die adjournment of Congress this week after President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. certified the measure as urgent.
“There is a compelling need for a sustainable national investment fund as a new growth catalyst to accelerate the implementation of strategic and high-impact large infrastructure projects that will stimulate economic activity and development,” President Marcos said in his message to the Senate, certifying the Maharlika Investment Fund as urgent.
Romualdez said the firm belief of the House in the capital market is also the reason the very first bill filed in the House under the 19th Congress is a measure aimed at providing enterprises the assistance they need to recover from the effects of the pandemic.
The Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery, or GUIDE, is one of the 31 bills the House has approved to date from the 42 priority measures of the Marcos administration identified under the Legislative Executive Advisory Council (LEDAC).
Romualdez said the push to amend the restrictive provisions of the 1987 Constitution is also part of the efforts the House is exerting to raise further the contribution of the private sector to national development.
He said the inauguration of the PSE Events Hall is a testament to the agility and resilience of the Exchange to adapt quickly to see and seize opportunities in our ever-changing state of affairs, citing its move to online trading to adapt to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am glad to see that the people behind the PSE are not resting on your laurels and are still exercising your entrepreneurial mindset with this latest endeavor. I am certain that the PSE Events Hall will soon be the venue for many groundbreaking business offerings,” Romualdez said.
