Marcos: Philippines ‘terribly excited’ about Pax Silica

SINGAPORE – As the debate over the Pax Silica initiative rages on, President Marcos said the Philippines is “terribly excited” about the US-led artificial intelligence (AI) and supply chain security effort.

Speaking during the 24th Forbes Global CEO conference yesterday, Marcos said the Philippines is already working to move up the value chain by going beyond producing semiconductor chips and expanding into research and development and design.

“That is one of the big areas that we are terribly excited about,” Marcos said when asked about the US-led initiative.

“We were already doing that (moving up the value chain) and Pax Silica came along and we saw that it was a grand opportunity for the Philippines to inhabit more of that value chain that we already had begun,” he added.

Pax Silica is the US government’s effort on AI and supply chain security that seeks to promote new economic security consensus among its allies.

The coalition has 24 members, including the Philippines, which joined the project last April.

According to Marcos, Pax Silica came as he is pushing for greater cooperation in AI as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.