Rody hailed for honoring business deals

MANILA, Philippines - British Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy Richard Graham yesterday lauded the current administration for giving assurance to honor existing business contracts, saying this will surely earn the country positive points among foreign investors.

“I absolutely appreciate meeting President Duterte and his absolute commitment to the rule of law and sanctity of existing projects with businesses. That is very important reassurance for British business especially and will lead to more investment which, of course, is driving many things, including more jobs,” Graham said in a joint luncheon meeting organized by the Makati Business Club and the British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.

The Duterte administration had earlier vowed to respect existing contracts entered into by the previous government.

Graham said the UK is upbeat on prospects for trade and investment under the Duterte administration.

The trade envoy, however, is hoping the Philippines would open up ownership of its educational institutions to foreigners to fully utilize the country’s investment potential.

“I actually think that it will be a wonderful thing to have here in the Philippines a British university and British school offering really good international flavor of education to Filipinos. We do that in Malaysia successfully and we love to see that flourishing in the Philippines as well,” Graham said.

Graham said he had personally communicated the proposal to Duterte and the President seemed “very open” to it.

“I did mention to him that I thought it would be nice if British universities and schools could open in the Philippines because that would provide international education without the cost of having to fly and live far away or abroad. It’s something the President is very open to… But he’s got a lot of priorities and which one he decides to tackle first is of course entirely for him to decide,” he said.