NEWS

By Jekki Pascual | ABS-CBN News | September 6, 2024 6:51PM

Over a dozen top Australian business leaders are in the Philippines for the Australian Business Mission aimed at strengthening economic ties between the Philippines and Australia while targeting priority sectors include mining, agriculture, energy, and education.

Australian Ambassador to the Philippines HK Yu described the landmark mission as “supercharged” where prominent business leaders in Australia met with the top Philippine conglomerate officials as well as the Philippine government’s economic managers.

“This mission is about further deepening our trade and investment relationship for two-way, not one-way, but two-way trade and investment relationship,” Ambassador Yu told reporters at the sideline of the event.

Xavier Simonet, Chief Executive Officer of the Australia Trade and Investment Commission, is happy with the outcome of the mission so far, saying that this will help show that the Philippines is a good investment destination for Australians.

“We find there is a lack of awareness among Australian businesses, lack of awareness of the opportunities of doing business in the Philippines… Big part of the job in this mission is really to educate Australian businesses,” Simonet said.

Shemara Wikramanayake is the mission leader and she is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Macquarie Group. She said the Philippines is the 20th largest trading partner of Australia, but she is not satisfied as she wants to increase that ranking in the future.

She added that they see many sectors where the two countries can work together.

“Agriculture, we’re talking about areas like resources, we’re talking about areas like education, and areas involving investing in infrastructure… Digital infrastructure, connectivity and importantly energy investment especially in renewable energy.”

John Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer of Export Finance Australia added, “We’re really interested in the infrastructure space. We heard a lot of the ‘Build Better More’ program and the Philippine energy plan which again really excites us in terms of the opportunities that presents for our organizartion.”

Among the biggest sector they see growing is mining. The officials said Australia can help the country to improve mining because of the many mining experiences in Australia.

“There’s $1.3 trillion of mining reserves here that has just been open up to 100 percent open pit foreign investment – where Australia has a lot of expertise… In areas like copper, gold, cobalt, the Philippines is rich in these minerals,” said Wikramanayake.

Ambassador Yu added, “Australian government has been helping the Philippine government to set up an appropriate framework whether it’s around taxes and licensing of the mining sector by sharing our experiences.”

Yu also announced thy are finalizing a AU$45 million or over P1.6 billion economic growth development program for the Philippines. She said for the many decades Australia has contributed in development aid projects for the Philippines, now they will include a focus on economic development.

“45 million dollar over 5 year that we are finalizing at the moment. And can I just say this program is co-designed with the Philippine government… Work out what it is that they need the most and actually a big chunk of this is really about helping the Philippines achieve good economic reforms,” Yu said.

This funding program is still being ironed out, but Yu said they may begin to implement this by next year. In 2023, the trade relations between the two countries was worth P378 billion, while two-way investment was valued at P321 billion.

Source: ABS-CBN News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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