H.E. MRS. MARY JO A. BERNARDO - ARAGON AMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
Her Excellency warmly welcomed and invited our ABAC GSB MBA students to visit her country. There are many beautiful tourism attractions in the Philippines.
Under the Duterte administration’s infrastructure plan of “Build Build Build,” the Philippines champions positive change in the lives of ASEAN citizens, and promotes cooperation with and among neighbors and ASEAN’s dialogue partners with the current main theme of “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World.”
There are six sub – thematic priorities: (1.) People – oriented, people – centered ASEAN, (2.) Peace and stability in the region, (3.) Maritime security and cooperation, (4.) Inclusive, innovation – led growth, (5.) ASEAN’s resiliency, and (6.) ASEAN: A model of regionalism, a global player.
The main objectives are to increase trade and investment, integrate global value chains, and develop an innovation – driven economy.
This session was focused on the sub – theme of “Inclusive, innovation – led growth.” Expected 110 million people in 2020, there are many trade opportunities in the Philippines for the growth sectors of manufacturing and business processing outsourcing. The other growth sectors are construction materials and services, hotel development, logistics, food processing, and machinery for manufacturing.
Many highlighted achievements are completion of the Focused and Strategic (FAST) Action Agenda on Investment, operationalization of the ASEAN Roll – On, Roll - Off (RO - RO) route connecting Davao and General Santos in Mindanao, Philippines to Bitung, and Sulawesi, Indonesia. The country also adopts the ASEAN Seamless Trade Facilitation Indicators (ASTFI), develops the ASEAN Inclusive Business Framework (AIBF), adopts the ASEAN Work Program on Electronic Commerce (AWPEC) for 2017 – 2025, successfully conducts the first full and comprehensive country visit exercise under the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2025 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, and adopts the Action Agenda on Mainstreaming Women’s Empowerment in ASEAN and the ASEAN Declaration on Innovation. Besides promoting the international trade, the Philippines also promotes “Go Lokal!” pop up store for domestic trading throughout the year.