The Philippines is ready to import $14 million cement from Pakistan to undertake its gigantic infrastructure development project of $260 billion, said Filipino envoy Daniel Ramos Espiritu while addressing the business community in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).
He said that bilateral trade does not match with the actual potential of the Philippines and Pakistan and we must make collaborative and serious efforts to enhance it up to a satisfactory level. He mentioned ups and downs in bilateral trade during the last decade and said that his objective to visit Faisalabad is to enhance the volume of trade and investment between the two countries. He said that currently, the Philippines is exporting electronics, garments, and auto parts to Pakistan. “Pakistan used auto parts for the assembling of cars which are re-exported to earn foreign exchange,” he said and added the Philippines is also importing rice from Pakistan as per capita consumption of rice in the Philippines is more than China. He said the Philippines has launched reconstruction of infrastructure projects and it needs cement in large quantities.
“We are planning to import it from Pakistan after its import from China and America”, he said and added that initially 14 million dollar cement will be imported from Pakistan while its quantity will be increased gradually. He appreciated the proposal of President Engineer Hafiz Ihtasham Javed to enhance the export of textiles, pharmaceuticals, and rice and in this connection, a conducive climate with maximum incentives will be offered to the new investors.
He said that the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan is saturated and now it should establish its new pharma units in the Philippines from where they will have free access to the 600 million population of ASEAN (ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS) block. About textile, he said that Pakistan has the raw material and skill to produce high-quality textile products. “On the other hand Philippines has expertise in fashion designing coupled with market access”, he said and added that both countries should club their expertise to give a quantum jump to their bilateral trade. He also endorsed the proposal of Engineer Hafiz Ihtasham Javed to send a delegation of FCCI to the Philippines and assured full support in materializing this proposal.
“The Pakistani exporters could have B2B meetings with their Filipino counterparts”, he said and added it will provide them an opportunity to critically explore the potential of Filipino markets. Continuing, Mr. Daniel Ramos Espiritu said the Philippines is the third-largest human resource exporting country after China and India and many countries are demanding our human resources to develop their fishery and agriculture sectors.
Earlier consular of Philippine Mr. Fazil Sheikh said that Pakistan can get access to a huge market which will be more beneficial than America and EU.
A documentary on the economic potential of the Philippines was also screened. It explained that Pakistani investment in the Philippines is around $67 million while the Philippines has so far invested $217 million in Pakistan.