OPENING SPEECH
Secretary Ramon M. Lopez
8th Philippine – France Joint Economic Commission Meeting
Makati Diamond Residences
Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean Baptiste Lemoyne
French Ambassador to the Philippines Nicolas Galey
DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo
Deputy Director of Bilateral Affairs for the French Treasury Christophe Bories
Distinguished officials from the Philippine and French governments
Friends from the Philippine business sector led by Philippine-France Business Council Head Mr. Anton Huang
The French MEDEF Business delegation led by Mr. Francois Corbin
Friends. Ladies and gentlemen.
Bonjour! Good morning! Mabuhay!
I am proud to welcome you all this morning to our country – the Philippines – on the occasion of the 8th Philippines-France Joint Economic Commission (JEC) Meeting. This high-level economic dialogue platform will enable both our countries to discuss areas for trade, investment, business cooperation, and other related matters. This, in turn, will advance bilateral economic ties of both nations, which complements the Philippines’ engagement with EU as a bloc.
I have to give a special thank you to Ambassador Lazaro and her representative here for her steadfastness in working with our Ministry, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the French side in having this JEC in Manila convened. The previous JEC meeting occurred four years ago in Paris, October 2015.
The Philippines-France JEC is the longest running between the Philippines with a European country, and I am especially happy to host you all in Manila. This comes at a time when bilateral trade and investment between our countries have been growing significantly.
In 2018, total trade between the Philippines and France grew to USD2.71 billion, up by 56.65% from its 2017 level at USD1.73 billion.
Contributing to this record number is the dynamic growth posted by trade both ways in 2018.
Philippine exports to France in particular was up by 43.89%, from USD807.63 million in 2017 to USD1.16 billion in 2018. Top items include vessels of transport, electronic products, and parts of airplanes. Philippine exports to France represents about 10% of total products sent to the EU.
French exports to the Philippines, on the other hand, was up by 67.13%, from USD924.81 million in 2017 to USD1.523 billion in 2018. The Philippines purchased airplanes and its parts from France in 2018.
The total trade figure placed France as the 14th largest country trading partner of the Philippines, behind other EU countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. France was also the country’s 17th largest source of products, and the Philippines’ 12th largest export destination.
Approved investments from France to the Philippines for 2018 as reported by our investment promotion agencies was up to Php 2.56 billion, up 2,478.8% a low base, of course. This placed France as the 11th largest source of approved foreign investments for the Philippines in 2018, just behind EU countries such as the Netherlands and the UK.
Today’s JEC meeting will led by our Deputy Minister, Undersecretary Rodolfo and Deputy Director Bories with key government representatives from both sides. You will hear about some of the ongoing engagements between our countries. Specifically, these include the Maritime Industry and Shipbuilding; Infrastructure and Transportation; Green Technology; Digital Economy and Innovation; Aeronautics and Space; Electronics; Agriculture; and Creative and Design Industries.
The morning session will also enable our business delegates to share their experiences doing business between our countries. I would like to thank our Filipino and French business representatives for joining us this morning in spite of their busy schedules. Their valuable inputs will truly be important in our goal of deepening specific areas for business cooperation. This will be contained in a summary document expected to be signed at the end of this JEC meeting.
We’ve already seen significant economic achievements obtained under the leadership of our hardworking Ambassadors Lazaro and Galey. However, I hope you are open to the idea that there remain extremely vast and untapped opportunities for growth in trade and investment between our countries.
I, for one, would like to see more French business people engage with counterparts from the Philippines in spite of the seeming geographical distance. The Philippines is continuing its growth story – something that many of our country partners from Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and the Middle East have already recognized early on. In recent months, we have had business engagements with multiple European countries, as well. These were done either through the JEC platform, through inbound business missions, or both.
I am also proud to say that numerous French business students complete their internship in the Philippines in social enterprises such as the Gawad Kalinga. This is quite significant as the country develops its image as a veritable laboratory for the incubation of social tech and civic tech projects that aim to address needs of local communities.
Four weeks ago, our country also welcomed a group of French electronics companies from ACSIEL that responded to the call of internationalization by visiting the Philippines. Why the Philippines? Our country has global expertise in hardware and software technology that make it a potentially viable business partner as the world enters the age of artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Many of them have seen for themselves and been personal witness to the Philippine growth story.
The Philippines, I must say, has been growing consistently, at the rate of 6% for the past 15 quarters and has definitely broken the boom and bust cycle of the Philippines, being experienced in the 70s and 80s. No wonder the international credit agencies, the S&P raised our credit rating to BBB+, just below the A grade.
The 108 million Filipinos, whose average age is 24 years old, will also sustain the engines of growth of the country. Our young and educated population is placing the country in a demographic sweet spot, and the way I see this is providing a bigger consumer base for the country, as well as a bigger pool for manpower resources. Many of our graduates are in the S&T field, about 10% of the 700,000 graduates every year.
As mentioned earlier to the French Minister, DTI has been at the forefront reforms, liberalization of trade areas. Aside from those reforms, the country has been working on further easing of doing business in the Philippines. Last year, the Philippines has signed the Ease of Doing Business Reform Act, that will simplify requirements and procedures. And we will continue to simplify them as we move forward.
The other significant reform, as we have mentioned to the minister, is reforms in the Foreign Negative List, where will we open more sector to allow greater foreign participation. This will be in public service and retail trade.
Part of the reforms being instituted by the current administration is the acceleration of infrastructure, where the Philippines is in a catch-up mode. We used to spend only 1-2% of GDP. And during the Duterte administration, we have levelled it up to 5-7% of GDP. That is in an effort to catch up in many infrastructure projects, and as an effort to develop more regional centers in outside of Metro Manila and lower also the logistics cost.
The Philippines benefited and continues to benefit from the EU-GSP+, which has provided market access to 6,274 local product items into the EU. And, as mentioned to the minister, we would like to maximize the utilization of our GSP+. I must say also that only about 6.35% of Philippine products under GSP+ went to France, so we hope we can increase this number. Moreover, 17% of Philippine exports to France—including spectacle lenses, crude coconut oil, brassieres, vacuum cleaners and canned tuna—benefited from the GSP+ scheme.
Going forward, the Philippines looks forward to pursuing the PH-EU FTA to continue the inroads provided by the EU-GSP+ including micro, small and medium enterprises. This is especially as we already recognize that these platforms, along with the PH-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), are critical in creating the framework to enhance both PH-FR and PH-EU relations.
Please keep these developments in the Philippines in mind as you engage in your discussions in the JEC today. It may help you have a broader appreciation of the business cooperation opportunities we may mutually pursue to elevate our relations further, and optimally benefit from the growth potential of our economies.
As Undersecretary Rodolfo and Deputy Director Bories lead you in the JEC discussion today, allow me to leave you with the words of French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint Exupery, who once wrote: “We see well only with the heart.”
Dear colleagues. See well with your hearts, and realize that there is so much prospect happening already here. And that so much more is about to be discovered and achieved.
I thank you for taking this journey to choose the Philippines. I also thank the minister for taking time to visit the Philippines, and only the Philippines. I thought this was part of an ASEAN tour, so we really appreciate your intention to visit only the Philippines.
Merci beaucoup. Salamat po at mabuhay kayong lahat.