Philippines

Though the majority of office stock is currently concentrated across Metro Manila, new growth centres such as Cebu City to the south are becoming increasingly attractive destinations for clients looking for lower rents combined with modern facilities. While the growth in residential properties is being driven by remittances from overseas Filipino...

For an archipelago of 7107 mostly mountainous islands, the task facing the transport sector has always been complex. Yet with renewed vigour, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) has unveiled ambitious plans to connect the islands and their regional economics by land, sea and air.

The administration of President Benigno Aquino III’s plan to secure private sector funding for transport projects – with an estimated price tag of P565bn ($12.83bn) to 2016 – is ambitious, but as the country struggles to overcome the stigma of past corruption and cronyism, reform efforts have piqued investor interest.

After several years in the wilderness, the Philippines’ tourism industry is beginning to enjoy an international renaissance which, combined with an ambitious domestic infrastructure spending spree, has the capacity to catapult the country into one of the region’s best performers over the next decade. A regional leader back in the 1970s, its...

Business inspired a modest 15% of international arrivals in the Philippines in 2010, according to Department of Tourism (DoT) statistics, which might go some way to explaining the country’s low stake in the international meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) market. However, as with much of the nascent international tourist...

The government’s stated aim of 10m international visitors by 2016 is ambitious, but one with attractive benefits for an economy that has long fallen short of its potential. Such a surge would raise tourism revenues in excess of P1.8trn ($40.8bn), equivalent to 7% of GDP, and generate 10m jobs, the benefits of which would cascade through the economy...