THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said it will pitch semiconductor and shipping companies to invest in the Philippines during a presidential visit to Japan on June 19-22.

Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina A. Roque said President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will also be meeting with South Korean companies.

The First Lady, meanwhile, will make an appearance at an expo featuring designers Carlo Calma and Kenneth Cobonpue, Ms. Roque told reporters on the sidelines of the Solaia: The IT-BPM Awards late Wednesday.

“What the First Lady will do is, whatever the setup is there, we will bring it to Manila so that the Filipinos can have a look at what we have shown there,” she added.

She said the DTI has received expressions of interest from potential investors beforehand. “But we are going to meet them now with the president this time, so I hope (their commitments) will be more firm,” she added.

She said the Japan visit will also be used to follow up on the commitments the DTI received from Japanese investors earlier this year.

Last week, Ms. Roque said that she will sit down with the Board of Investments (BoI) to discuss its targets for the year following a slowdown in the first three months.

“The meeting went well. I also met with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to see how everything is progressing,” she said, noting that the investment promotion agencies (IPAs) have maintained their targets.

“Every year we have an investment approval target, and we are hoping that we can meet that, so we are really focused on that,” she added.

For 2025, the BoI and PEZA are hoping to obtain P1.75 trillion and P250 billion worth of investment pledges, respectively.

As of May, the BoI has approved P329.52 billion in investment pledges, while PEZA approved P66.34 billion.

Asked about her optimism regarding the targets, she said that the BoI and PEZA are banking on the impact of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) Act.

“We are optimistic because of the incentives under the CREATE MORE Act. They are calling us the Asian superstar now; we are not encountering any problems when we go abroad,” she added.

Last week, she said her meeting with the IPAs will serve to gauge the impact of US President Donald J. Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.

“We are hoping to stabilize things because exporters also want to know what is happening,” she said.

“But there is continuous negotiation between our people. At a higher level, there are no meetings set yet. But the talks are going as we have hoped,” she added.

In April, Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on most of its trading partners, with a 17% duty assigned to the Philippines. These have been put on hold until next month, pending the renegotiation of tariffs. Pending the new rates, most trading partners will be charged the 10% baseline rate. — Justine Irish D. Tabile