TORONTO – The Canadian government is preparing to send a trade mission to the Philippines by the end of this year and that shall provide a strapping venue for their investors to explore opportunities for capital infusion into green technology ventures, agri-business as well as prospects in the digital and electronic commerce (e-commerce) spheres.

Canadian Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development Mary Ng indicated “we’re taking a trade mission to the Philippines in December. There are many businesses here in Canada that are interested in pursuing opportunities and investments.”

The particular areas of interest, she said, will be “opportunities to collaborate in green technologies because there’s circularity of business that we’re having here in Canada and also in the Philippines; then digital and e-commerce businesses.”

Another core investment domain that the Canadian companies are enthusiastic to pursue in the Philippines will be those in the food and agriculture sector - especially so since the first ever Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Office initiated by Canada has its hub in Manila.

“Agriculture is our DNA, it’s who we are as a country and it just made a lot of sense to us because the Philippines has indicated to us that it is something that they really are interested in. We want to have presence for Canadian agriculture, agri-food in the Indo-Pacific region, so it will be our agri-food hub in Manila that will serve the Indo-Pacific region,” she stressed.

The Canadian minister emphasized that what they can valuably share to peers in the Philippines and the entire region will be “farming and agricultural practices that are efficient,” primarily the strategies that have already been tried and tested in its home market.

“Before we released the Indo-Pacific strategy last year; the dialogue we’ve had in the Philippines had been one of the key when we talked about food security and about the opportunities to grow the agriculture sector in the Philippines and they were looking to Canada around collaborating on things like food regulation,” Ng conveyed.

She added that in terms of trade, it is also in the food and agri-business that Canada and the Philippines have vast synergy and collaboration, hence, the hub in the Philippines is seen as a prudent step to broaden partnerships.

Ng expounded that energy will be another strategic investment game plan that Canadian companies will be setting their sights on – including prospective investments in the nuclear development space once the Philippines would finally re-take its pathway on such technology installations.

“Hopefully in nuclear, we can follow through on this very important visit of the Philippine delegation with some work that we will do here between now and December,” she noted.

Being a first-rate country in terms of nuclear technology deployment, Ng qualified that Canada is well-positioned to help the Philippines navigate the resurgence of its nuclear power ambitions – particularly on the prospective adoption of the CANDU reactors if these will eventually be preferred by investors in the Philippines.

“Canada is a tier one nuclear country and what that means is: everything in the nuclear supply chain, Canada has been one of the most experienced for many, many decades -- from resource mining, to fuel processing to technology development to manufacturing up to the operations. And in doing so, we are upholding the highest safety standards in the sector in particular and ensuring a non-proliferation both here at home and abroad,” the Canadian minister specified.

She further stated “our nuclear industry is also a world-leading producer of isotopes – we have medical isotopes that are used to treating different diseases like cancer. And the CANDU reactor, of course, is our intellectual property for decades.”

The Canadian minister likewise highlighted that the two countries are fundamentally joined at the hip on people-to-people interdependence, because Canada has been a major host-country to the diaspora of roughly 1.4 million Filipinos who have sought shelter and employment pursuits in this foreign land.

“This year marks the 75th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Canada and the Philippines. In this relationship, it’s such a strong one bilaterally underpinned by our people-to-people ties…that is one wonderful reason to celebrate that connects us,” she asserted.