Marcos Jr. looking to make Philippines a major logistics hub in region

Presidential aspirant former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said he would push for he modernization of the country's ports and railways to make the Philippines a major logistics hub in the region.

"Our strategic location in the Pacific is an advantage that no other country has.  It's time for us to leverage this and aspire to become a major logistics hub in the region," Marcos said in a statement.

"To achieve this we will need to modernize our existing seaports, airports, and railways or build new ones where necessary," he added.

Marcos said the growing popularity of e-commerce platforms among Filipinos showed the need to enhance the country's logistics capability. 

He also said investing in port automation, computerization, and the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) would "increase efficiency, prevent port congestion and redound to lower shipping costs."

"We are already seeing changes in the spending habits of Filipinos with the rise of e-commerce platforms. This is a trend that was accelerated by the pandemic and is only expected to grow in the years to come," Marcos said.

"We need to adapt technologies deployed in other ports such as in Europe and even from our ASEAN neighbor, Singapore, to develop our own Smart ports," he added. -Consuelo Marquez/NB, GMA News