A SURGE in public and private spending in the Philippines is resulting in capital investment growth that surpasses Malaysia’s, reports Bloomberg.

The financial portal reports that net physical assets in the Philippines grew 10.4% in the first nine months of this year,  from a year earlier. By comparison, Malaysia’s grew by 6.9% and while Indonesia’s grew by 5.8%.

The report said Manila’s spending jumped 28% last month, with another record budget planned for next year.

Private companies are also spending more, with Metro Pacific Investments Corp planing to invest up to US$16 billion (RM 65.62 billion) through 2022 on road, water, and power projects, while Ayala Land Inc is boosting capital spending to a record US$2 billion next year.

President Rodrigo Duterte is also embarking on an ambitious US$180 billion programme of railroad and highway construction in the archipelago.

This surge in investment is leading to the Philippines experiencing its sixth year of growth exceeding 6%, among the best performing economies in the world.

“With growth firing on all cylinders, the Philippines is really standing out in a region where the outlook has turned more positive,” said Eugenia Victorino, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd in Singapore.

The Philippines is catching up after lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbours for years. Growth in net physical assets – or gross fixed capital formation – averaged 14.4% in the five years through 2016, the fastest in Southeast Asia and almost twice as fast as Malaysia, according to the World Bank.

Duterte wants to transform the Philippines into an upper-middle income country by the end of his term in 2022, and the cornerstone of his vision is a plan referred to as “Build, Build, Build”. It includes the capital’s first subway and a 653km railway to the south. – November 29, 2017.