Ramping up momentum for stronger Australian-Philippine economic ties

Dear Friends,

As Australia’s Ambassador to the Philippines, strengthening Australian-Philippine economic ties is one of the core responsibilities of my role. In this context, over the past few weeks, I was delighted to welcome both Australia’s Trade and Tourism Minister, Senator the Hon. Don Farrell and Australia’s Special Envoy for Southeast Asia, Mr. Nicholas Moore, in their respective official visits to Manila.

Both visits included excellent engagements with senior Philippine government representatives, private sector leaders and development partners on how we can boost our trade and investment ties and remove barriers to drive economic growth.

Mr. Moore’s appointment as Special Envoy for Southeast Asia was a direct outcome of the Australian Government’s commitment to deepening its engagement with Southeast Asia, under Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.

The countries of Southeast Asia already represent nearly 14 percent of Australia’s overall trade, but we are keen to grow and diversify our trade relationship. The Philippines has a key role in achieving this, as there are many great opportunities to increase trade activity between our countries.

During his visit, Mr. Moore focused on how Australia and the Philippines can enhance two-way trade and investment in key sectors of complementarity such as agriculture, infrastructure, mining, renewable energy and education. A key recurring theme Mr. Moore heard was how Australian expertise can benefit Philippine businesses in these sectors, helping to drive quality, sustainable growth, which increases local jobs and incomes.

After Mr. Moore’s visit, I then accompanied a senior Philippine official and business delegation to Perth on PAL’s inaugural Manila-Perth direct flight that has now cut the travel time dramatically to this economic and tourism mecca of Australia. I joined the delegation on a program focused on Australia’s world-class mining industry and we came away with many ideas of how Australia can partner with the Philippines to support the development of an environmentally and economically responsible mining sector here.

Trade and Tourism Minister Farrell then visited Manila early last week to build on this momentum and advance discussions with the government and private sectors on enhancing our trade, investment and people-to-people links. The Minister heard how the Marcos administration has made significant headway in reducing foreign investment barriers, such as liberalizing telecommunications, transport and renewable energy – sectors where Australian companies have experience and expertise – and saw how this and further liberalization, including through the current upgrade of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, will continue to benefit both our countries.

For example, one major Australian player in the telecommunications and connectivity space is Macquarie, which has a majority stake in tower company PhilTower. PhilTower has qualified for the Philippine Government’s Greenlane Program – an initiative aimed to streamline government transactions for strategic investments. I hope that this effort to improve the business environment encourages more Australian businesses to establish and expand their presence in the Philippines.

Another dimension to the Minister’s visit was to identify ways to increase our tourism linkages with the Philippines. As I have mentioned previously in this column, I have encouraged more and more Australian tourists to experience firsthand the natural beauty, warm hospitality and rich cultural traditions offered by various regions in the Philippines.

Australia is already the Philippines’ fourth highest tourist market for the first quarter this year. I now extend the same invitation to Filipinos to visit Australia.

A key way we can boost tourist numbers in both directions is through more flights, including directly opening up the Visayas with direct flights between Australia and Cebu. There are still a few steps to go through before this can happen, but I look forward to working with Tourism Secretary Frasco and the various airlines to explore ways we can make this a reality soon.

Developing our tourism ties is in tandem with our ongoing efforts to enable ease of movement of skilled workers, access to quality international education and exchange of talent and expertise. These efforts can further add to our already deep people-to-people links. We do not have to look far to look for examples on the depth of our relationship – Minister Farrell’s wife is actually from the Philippines! I am confident that the Minister’s first official visit to the Philippines was even more special because of this connection!

These recent visits of Australian senior government officials also build on our ongoing work towards the signing of a Strategic Partnership with the Philippines in 2023. Our economic relationship will be an important element of the Strategic Partnership and I am very excited and confident about the number and quality of new opportunities we are working to achieve for our businesses and workers that will further strengthen our people-to-people links.

Yours truly,

HK

*   *   *

HK Yu is the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines. You can follow Ambassador Yu on Twitter @AusAmbPH.