Perfect for the role

When Frederick Go was asked to join the administration of President Marcos first as presidential adviser and then next as Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (SAPIEA) in December 2023, a role and office specially created for him, there was no doubt in everyone's mind that he would deliver results.

- MARY ANN LL. REYES

After all, Go was already running a highly successful business enterprise. Before joining government, he was already CEO of Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) and served various leadership positions in six listed companies and more than 100 corporations across various industries such as retail, banking, media, real estate, food, finance and airlines among others.

Go perfectly understood how ideas from business could improve efficiency and effectiveness in government.

As SAPIEA, he worked on several key initiatives. To boost the capital markets, several measures were undertaken to encourage listing and participation in the PSE by allowing short selling 27 years since it was first proposed, allowing after-hours volume weighted average price trading on the same day, shortening the settlement cycle from three to two days and the IPO review timeline from four to six months to just 45 days, and removing the minimum broker's commission fee and reducing the stock transaction tax from 0.6 to 0.1 percent aligning our practices with the best in the world.