MANILA (UPDATE) — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.'s foreign trips this year have so far generated $23.6 billion in investment pledges, Malacañang said on Friday, citing information from the trade department.

The pledges cover his trips from Indonesia, Singapore, US, Cambodia, and Thailand, Press Undersecretary Cheloy Garafil said.

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The pledges were secured as the administration "gears toward aggressively attracting more foreign businesses to come to the Philippines," she said.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) did not include in its year-end report the President's trip to Belgium earlier this month for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union Summit (ASEAN-EU), the Palace said.

Marcos earlier said the country received an estimated P9.8 billion worth of investment pledges during that trip.

During his first state visits in Indonesia and Singapore in September, the Philippine government and its counterparts signed 10 letters of intent and 12 memoranda of understanding in key sectors such as energy, e-commerce, technology, and agriculture.

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Investment pledges from his trip to the US, meanwhile, mainly came from information technology and business process management, data centers, and manufacturing. These may generate over 112,000 jobs, said the Palace.

The President is scheduled for a state visit to China in January.

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APPROVED INVESTMENTS, EXPORTS

The Palace said the DTI Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority had a combined approved investment of P402 billion, which could generate some 54,217 local jobs.

Under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act, the BOI’s approved projects as of August this year stood at P46.7 billion, with the investment board also assisting 1,994 investors wanting to do business in the country, said the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS).

The BOI also generated 90 foreign investment leads with an estimated value of P204.9 billion which could entail 98,393 local jobs, the OPS said.

It said the DTI reported $17.7 billion worth of exports in services, up by 13.5 percent from the previous record.

The Philippines also posted $58.3 billion exports in goods, which grew by 4.7 percent, the OPS said.

"The [trade] department indicated that the country’s investment and exports are expected to rebound next year as a result of the passage of the Public Service Act (PSA) and CREATE Act," it said.