RP, S'porean business leaders to boost bilateral investments
RP, S'porean business leaders to boost bilateral investments
SINGAPORE (AFP): Business leaders from the Philippines and Singapore decided yesterday to boost bilateral and regional investments in their first official contact since a diplomatic spat over the hanging of a Filipina maid.
The second executive meeting of the Philippine-Singapore Business Council also mapped out strategies to facilitate more cooperation among small- and medium-scale enterprises of the two countries, officials said.
"This is very welcome development. It is one more indication that we are back on track. The future looks ... very hopeful," Philippine deputy ambassador Victoriano Lecaros told AFP.
In conjunction with the council meeting, a plenary session was held for 43 Philippine and Singapore companies seeking to exploit joint business collaboration, said a statement from Singapore's investment-promotion agency. the Economic Development Board (EDB).
The Philippines business delegation comprised leading companies such as Ayala Corp., SGV and Co., Benedicto Steel Corp., Petron Corp. and the Philippines National Oil Company.
They were accompanied by representatives of the Philippines Board of Investment and the joint secretariat of the council, EDB and the Makati Business Club.
The council discussed and endorsed the formulation of its two- year workplan and moves to further encourage Singapore investments in the Philippines and joint Philippine-Singapore investments in third countries, the statement said.
The business talks were held amid the normalization of relations after a bitter row over the March 1995 hanging of Flor Contemplacion, who had been convicted of murdering a fellow Filipina maid and a Singaporean toddler.
She had confessed to the murders, but her execution triggered widespread protests in the Philippines, where many believed she had been framed.
The two countries withdrew their ambassadors, downgrading diplomatic ties, and Philippine President Fidel Ramos prohibited any more Filipina maids from being sent to the city state.
But bilateral ties have since been normalized, with new ambassadors taking up posts in April. Last month, Ramos lifted the ban on Filipino domestic helpers taking up employment here.
Bilateral trade, in Singapore's favor, reached S$4.29 billion (US$3.06 billion) last year, according to statistics provided by Singapore's Trade Development Board.
The Philippine-Singapore Business Council's executive committee meeting Wednesday was chaired by Guillermo Luchangco, chairman of the ICCP Group of the Philippines. The co-chairman was Loh Wing Siew, managing director of Singapore's Keppel Group.
Lecaros said that the next meeting of the council would be held in Cebu in the Philippines in February.
The first council meeting was held in the Philippines in January 1995 after it was launched in October 1994 in Singapore.