MANILA -- Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Thursday announced that government has identified close to 200 projects that will be supported by the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).

"We have identified already some, close to 200 top priority projects and they need funding, and so, we will focus on those first and some of them are ready for implementation and in fact being implemented," he said.

"The Maharlika Investment Fund is more designed really for our domestic economy rather than investing abroad," he explained.

The Palace has identified tourism infrastructure, agri-forestry, energy security, digital infrastructure, and financial services as the MIF's priority investment areas.

• Consing sworn in as Maharlika president and CEO

Diokno also said that Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) President Rafael Consing Jr.'s plan to double the fund's investible capital to P250 billion in 2 years is "very doable."

He noted that the MIF's money has so far come from the Land Bank of the Philippines at P50 billion, Development Bank of the Philippines at P25 billion, and P32 billion in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) dividends.

"That could easily be doubled by enticing some investment, foreign and domestic, to beef up the size of the fund," he said.

• P75 billion investment in Maharlika still with the Treasury

--ANC, 7 December 2023