President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s first foreign trip for 2018
can already be called a success even if it has not started.
Duterte is one of the ten chief guests during India’s
Republic Day celebration in New Delhi. Duterte along with the other nine
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders were invited for the
special commemorative summit.
The President on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India
Commemorative Summit 2018, had a bilateral meeting with India’s Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and was all business in expanding the two nation’s economic
relationship with each other. *
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| Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi(L) and Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the former welcoming the latter as one of his chief guests of the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi( Photo credit Malacañan PCOO) |
Presidential
Spokesperson Harry Roque who is part of
the lean delegation headed by the President said investment pledges and
agreements from Indian firms reached a total of USD1.25 billion, which are
expected to generate thousands of jobs for Filipinos.
"The truth
of the matter is, even before the start of the ASEAN-India [Summit], DTI has
already facilitated USD1.250 billion in new investments in the
Philippines," Roque said during an official press briefing at the ASEAN-India
Commemorative Summit 2018.
The Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI) through its head Ramon Lopez announced that it has
obtained at least nine (9) investment pledges and agreements from top Indian
companies, which are expected to strengthen the Philippines’ economic
relationship with the South Asian country.
Ramon Lopez’s
team had a series of meetings at the sidelines of the summit to discuss and
explore investment plans with major Indian conglomerates that intend to either
expand or begin their operations in the Philippines.
“We had
basically about nine agreements with them on how… we can both expand and
strengthen our trade and investment relationship," said Lopez.
“I will tell you
that it is emerging to be a substantial commitment on the investment side as
well as job generation side,” he added.
In the field of pharmaceutics,
information technology, energy, tourism, medical wellness and business
processing management are the areas of the investment pledges that the
Philippines were able to secure. *
The DTI
Secretary said the government primarily wanted to prioritize pharmaceutics and
business outsourcing as areas of cooperation with India, since the country is
known to excel in both industries.
He said this was
“aligned with what the president intends to achieve in this visit – to
strengthen the trade on pharmaceuticals to ensure that the Filipinos will have
better, easier access to affordable quality drugs.”
Report from PNA
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