MANILA (UPDATE) - US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo arrived in the Philippines with good news on Monday saying over $1 billion worth of investments are coming to the country from 22 American companies.

Raimondo, who leads a high-level Presidential Trade and Investment Mission, met with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and the Philippine economic team upon her arrival. She is representing US President Joe Biden who is seeking stronger trade relations with the Philippines.

“On this trip alone, these companies are announcing over a billion dollars of US investments including creating educational opportunities to over 30 million Filipinos,” Raimondo told reporters in a press briefing.

“Interests in higher wage jobs, in telecommunications, in digitization, helping small and medium-sized companies to digitize. That’s a strong theme of the investments these companies hope to make,” she added.

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Some of the companies joining the trade mission and who are all reportedly investing more in the Philippines are FedEx, UPS, United Airlines, Mastercard, VISA, Microsoft, and Google.

She did not disclose the exact investments per company, but Raimondo said many of these companies, especially tech firms, will launch training programs on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and more. This will also help the semiconductor sector in the Philippines, as well as boost tourism with the addition of Cebu to United Airlines’ route map. All these investments, she said, can generate thousands of new jobs.

“US companies are interested to invest in Filipinos. Just look at the many American companies that provide employment and professional development for thousands of Filipinos, putting them on a path to higher-paying jobs,” she said.

Philippine Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual added that they have signed agreements with many of these companies already.

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“Google for example and other tech companies in the US will be offering our people. They’re targeting thousands of Filipinos to be given training and certification in digital competence.”

Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Sec. Frederick Go, meanwhile said the trade mission was not one-way, as the Philippines also requested help from the US government on extending assistance to Philippine exports to the US.

“We raised a particular issue of a Filipino company that manufactures garments and exports them to the US. We brought this to their attention that a Filipino garments company needs support from the US government. We’re helping manufacturing companies in the Philippines to export their products to the US,” said Go.

Raimondo will meet with Philippine business groups on Tuesday before heading back to the US.

The Philippines lags behind its neighbors in attracting foreign investments. The country passed several laws a few years ago to open the economy to foreign capital. Lawmakers are now eyeing amendments to the Constitution itself to further open up the economy. 

A House Leader on Monday said having more foreign direct investments in the country will help gather international support to push back China's aggressiveness towards the Philippines over the West Philippine Sea.

 - With a report from RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News