President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. returns today from the inaugural of state visits – a four-day swing of Indonesia and Singapore, fellow members in the largely economic alliance Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The President himself said the ASEAN run would be the first of a series of trips he would be making to the country’s friends, partners and allies round the world and put this Southeast Asian republic in a position where Manila has strong alliances and partnerships necessary for it to come out of the post-pandemic economy.
In Indonesia from September 4 to 6, where he addressed 8,000 animated members of the Filipino community, the 64-year-old President Marcos met up for the first time with President Joko Widodo, three years Marcos’ junior, and discussed the current state and future of bilateral bonds as well as the changing global environment.
They also witnessed the signing of several bilateral agreements that covered defense and security, creative economy and culture.
The foreign ministers of the two countries were also scheduled to sign the Philippines-Indonesia Plan of Action for the next five years which commits Manila and Jakarta to projects and activities that embrace wide range of bilateral cooperation.
As President Marcos earlier said, the Philippine side also sought the partnership and the help of Indonesian friends, led by President Widodo for investment in areas where the Philippines believes they can be of assistance especially in critical areas like agriculture and energy.
In Singapore, home to 200,000 Filipinos who have contributed to the economies of their homeland and their host state, on the invitation of President Halimah Yacob, the Filipino leader spent Tuesday overnight before returning home today.
He has scheduled separate meetings with President Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to renew the Philippine commitment to deepen bilateral ties, explore options for advancing economic ties, as well as discuss regional and global issues.
Singapore has become the Philippines’ top trading partner in ASEAN and the top source of approved investments in 2021.
Official figures suggest economic cooperation with Singapore has grown exponentially for the past 57 years since Singapore became independent on August 9, 1965. President Marcos himself admitted “more opportunities are just waiting to be tapped by both sides.”
The state visits had been aimed at seeking to harness the potentials of the Philippines’ sparkling trade and investment relations.
As such, an economic briefing, business fora and meetings were organized to proactively create and attract more investments and buyers for Philippine exports, to accelerate the post-pandemic growth of the domestic economy.
The President was upbeat when he said “I expect that we will be coming back with a harvest of business deals to be signed in my State Visits that will further strengthen our economic ties with both Indonesia and Singapore.”
Correctly, these initiatives the Philippine delegation undertook have been in line with all of the priority areas the Marcos administration identified: the agricultural sector, the guarantee of food supply, the guarantee of prices – food prices affordable to ordinary Filipinos, the long-term plans for energy, and the long-term plans the Philippines has for emergence into the new global economy.
We look forward to what the President called this “harvest of business deals” as the country rolls out the red carpet welcome.