UK seeks more green investments, partnerships with Philippines
MANILA, Philippines — The United Kingdom is looking to “significantly” increase its investments in the Philippines, especially growing its green investments and infrastructure as the country highlights the need to address climate change and environmental issues.
Collaborating on environmental issues was identified as one of the four key pillars of the Philippines’ bilateral relationship with the UK. The others include trade and investments, science and technology, and working together on maritime issues.
“[Through] British International Investments, we’ll be investing 500 million pounds in Southeast Asia in the next five years and the Philippines is one of the three focus countries in that,” British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils told reporters on Thursday.
“We’ve also invested 150 million pounds through an Asian Development Bank program that focuses specifically on green infrastructure and which will leverage additional private sector finance in order to do more investments so that’s just government resources and investments.”
UK recently hosted the UN Climate Change Conference. Beaufils maintained that they plan to support the Philippines in climate adaptation efforts as well as on Manila’s energy transition plans.
The UK is also eyeing to “increase significantly” its investments in the Philippines through new mechanisms it developed. Beaufils also said that it aims to work with Manila on crafting linkages with its science and technology companies.
Meanwhile, the UK will continue to work with the Philippines to address maritime issues and securing peace and stability in the region.
Beaufils reiterated the country’s commitment to backing the Philippines in maintaining rules-based order through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 arbitral ruling on the South China Sea.
The ruling invalidated China's nine-dash claim on the disputed waters and instead provided that it is under the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. However, China has continuously ignored this ruling.
While he did not mention a specific case, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in his 2022 State of the Nation address in August that he will "not preside over any process that will abandon even a square inch of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to any foreign power."
“We were very supportive of the president’s statement when he said that he will not relinquish one inch of Filipino territory,” she said.
She said the UK is also “scaling up” its navies and maintaining its presence in the region.
“We did have our carrier strike group visit last year, it will come back at the end of 2023 or early 2024,” Beaufils said. “We’re here to stay from a defense perspective. We currently have two ships in this region that have persistent presence.”
- Latest
- Trending
