To aid the country's post-pandemic recovery, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is set to encourage Singaporean businesses to invest in the Philippines during his visit there next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
DFA spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said this days before Marcos' inaugural overseas trips next week. He will be visiting Indonesia and Singapore from September 4 to 7.
In a pre-departure press briefing, Daza said Marcos' visit to Singapore from September 6 to 7 was upon the invitation of President Halimah Yacob. He will have separate meetings with the Singaporean President and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to discuss the close bilateral relations between the two countries and regional and global issues.
She added that one of the reasons why President Marcos accepted the invitation to visit Singapore was to bolster the robust economic ties between the two countries and encourage more investments in the Philippines to support its post-pandemic recovery.
"As Singapore is a key trade and investment partner of the Philippines, an economic briefing and business roundtable meetings will be organized where the President intends to invite investments in the Philippines and create more job opportunities in the country," Daza said.
Daza said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is preparing several business agreements to be signed in Singapore and Indonesia. These agreements will be tailored to the priority areas of the Marcos administration.
"It could include infrastructure, renewable energy, food and security, and fertilizer importation, among others," she said.
Agreements
According to Daza, Marcos and Lee are set to witness the signing of agreements in the areas of counterterrorism and data privacy.
Daza said the first deliverable would be the arrangement concerning the assignment of a team to the regional Counterterrorism Information Facility (CITF). This will be signed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Singapore Armed Forces.
The CITF is a multilateral platform for monitoring, researching, and analyzing terrorist activities. By deploying a Philippine officer, the DFA official said the Philippines could share its experience and expertise in addressing and combatting terrorism while gathering valuable intelligence from other countries and expanding its defense network.
Meanwhile, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) and cooperation in personal data protection will be signed by the National Privacy Commission (NPC) and the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore.
For this agreement, Daza said the Philippines and Singapore aim to strengthen the digitization efforts of both countries. This would help the Philippines protect the data privacy of Filipinos in the digital era and encourage data participation in the Philippine digital economy.
Meanwhile, Daza said President Marcos would meet with the Filipino communities in Singapore and Indonesia to personally assure them of the government's continuing commitment to protect their rights and promote their welfare as overseas Filipinos.
Singapore is home to 200,000 Filipinos, most of whom are professional, skilled, and semi-skilled expatriates.
ASEAN ties
According to Daza, Marcos' back-to-back visit to Indonesia and Singapore as his inaugural overseas trip demonstrates the importance the Philippines places on its relations with its fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
As close members and founding members of ASEAN, the Philippines enjoys active engagement with Indonesia and Singapore in various areas, including security and defense, trade and investment, and people-to-people exchanges, among others.