The Philippines is expected to sign at least 10 business agreements during President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to Japan by the end of May, an official says.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said those deals were expected to allow Japanese companies to invest in the Philippines by expanding their businesses here.
“So far we have two MOUs [memorandums of understanding] and around eight letters of intent,” Lopez told reporters on Thursday.
“In other words, companies are already here that are intending to expand their operation, invest more, expand the operations.”
Lopez said those Japanese companies had decided to invest in the Philippines as an expression of their “support and confidence” in the current administration.
He said the deals included investments in electronics, manufacturing, data analytics, some services, the AI field, tourism and transportation.
He could not give an estimate as to the amount those investments would generate but said those would be “substantial.”
“Substantial, substantial. The big companies that are here, investment-wise they invest in a big way,” Lopez said.
He described the trade relations between the Philippines and Japan as a strong one. In particular, he said, the Philippines remained to be Japan’s biggest supplier of bananas.
“Since Japan is the big brother, the advanced economy, we’re asking them to open up all their markets,” Lopez said.
He said the government was working to reduce the tariff rates to gain more access to the Japanese market.
“We’ve seen that their tariff rates for other countries are lower, so we said let’s reduce them,” Lopez said.
Duterte is set to attend the International Conference on the Future of Asia on May 30 to 31. That would be Duterte’s third visit to Japan since he assumed the presidency. He first visited Japan in 2016 and again in 2017.