JAKARTA, Indonesia — President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. raised the possibility of sourcing rice from Cambodia and further boosting commercial aviation between the two countries.

Marcos said this during his bilateral meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet at the sidelines of the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit here on Sept. 7.

In his remarks, the President said his meeting with Manet was only the beginning of more enhanced cooperation with Cambodia.

"I see that there’s so much room for growth, so much room for partnership," he said.

"I am a great believer of multilateral discussions but I also give equal importance to bilateral arrangements that we might do. Once again, I’m very happy to have had this exchange and I think, as I said, we’ve already identified so many areas that we can start off with,” he added.

According to Marcos, the Philippines was looking forward to strengthening its relationship with Cambodia in the areas of food security, trade and commerce, and people-to-people exchanges.

Specifically, the President said the Philippines is working towards ensuring food sufficiency, especially rice, following recent typhoons that have greatly affected local rice production.

It also intends to request the Cambodian government to ease the terms and conditions for rice importers in the Philippines to ensure a steady supply of the staple coming into the country.

Initially, business-to-business sales deals between Khmer Foods company and rice importers in the Philippines resulted in the export to the Philippines of about 2,500 tons of rice in May this year.

This was the first time the Philippines imported a significant tonnage of rice from Cambodia after the passage of the Rice Tariffication Law in 2019, which liberalized rice trade in the Philippines and allowed private entities, instead of the government, to import rice from any country, subject to compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary requirements and import duties.

Cambodian officials said their country is targeting to get a one percent share of the market of imported rice in the Philippines by 2024 and encouraged stakeholders to sustain and make more efforts to increase rice exports to the Philippines.

Civil aviation cooperation

Both Marcos and Manet agreed to expand the direct flights between the Philippines and Cambodia given the improvements in the Covid-19 situation and the easing of restrictions.

“I shall, as my homework when I get back, look into the possibility of our airline increasing the number of flights to other destinations in Cambodia that we would like to go to. This is something that goes both ways,” Marcos said.

The President also mentioned the cultural, educational, and people-to-people exchanges between the Philippines and Cambodia that could be enhanced further.

“I’m very proud of our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and the teachers who have gone abroad and places. Many who’ve come from my part of the country and we have been able to assist our allies and our partners in terms of exchange of culture and the like,”  Marcos said.