Noy in UK: $1 B in business agreements signed

LONDON (via PLDT) – President Aquino witnessed here yesterday the signing of more than $1 billion in business agreements between British and Filipino companies, which the government said would be a good endorsement of the Philippines as an investment destination.

Cebu Pacific and Rolls Royce signed a $280-million service contract, in which Cebu Pacific will buy airplane engines from Rolls Royce, which the latter will maintain.

The ASEA Gaz Asia Ltd. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Gas Project will invest $150 million to build plants that will convert bio-methane from waste materials that could be used as vehicle fuel.

The agreements were signed after the President met with the executives of the said companies.

The Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. (PASAR-Glencore) also committed to invest $500 million to $600 million (around P26 billion) to expand its smelting capacity and build a power plant to support their operations.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, who attended the President’s meeting with PASAR-Glencore executives, said the new investments could provide jobs for many Filipinos in the country.

Purisima said Glencore officials here committed to expand PASAR with a $300-million to $350-million investment and they are studying the possibility of investing another $200 million to $250 million in a power plant to support their operations.

The mining firm shut down in January after a fire hits its site in central Leyte province.

Aquino and his delegation arrived here late Monday night (early yesterday morning Manila time) and were welcomed by Filipino and British officials.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said the Philippines would like to get direct government and private investments to generate jobs and not just developmental aid.

“The United Kingdom is one of the biggest investors in the Philippines. We have very strong trade ties with the UK and we’re hoping that during this trip, we will be able to sign a few more agreements that will increase British investments in the Philippines,” Carandang said.

Carandang said there were no agreements yet for public-private partnership (PPP) projects but the Philippines would market them to the British government and companies.

“This is our first visit to Europe and there’s a lot of opportunities in Asia, in the Philippines. We want to be able to sell the Philippines to British investors. So that’s really the main agenda here,” he said.

“We’re really here to enhance economic and trade ties. A lot of the trade, the tourism, the investments that we’re looking at coming from Europe will come primarily from Britain. Most of our investments from Europe have come from Britain and we think it’s high time we did some work to enhance that even more,” Carandang said, adding this would also be the message that the President would relay to Queen Elizabeth II.

Carandang said the President also had meetings with executives of Shell and Nestlé, which are long-time investors in the Philippines.

“They are coming and they are investing even more. That’s the best sign of confidence. So the fact that you’ve got companies that are already in the Philippines who are going to put in more money I think is the best endorsement you can find for other companies. And we’re hoping that other companies in this area, in this country, take note of the additional investments being made by some of these big respected British and European companies,” he said.

Carandang said the President would highlight his anti-corruption drive during his meeting with the Filipino community.

“It’s pretty clear to everybody around the world that we’re making headway in the anti-corruption drive. We’re here to talk to them about business. And if they bring it up then we’ll certainly talk to them, we‘ll certainly answer their questions about it. But my understanding is that they are really more interested in looking for what opportunities may be available to invest in the Philippines,” he said.

“There are so many things on offer. There are the PPP programs. We need a lot of infrastructure... We’re looking at investments in things like mining, tourism, agriculture,” Carandang said.

The President earlier said other areas of investments like information technology and business process outsourcing, renewable energy, electronics and others would be discussed during his visit here.