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Over the past four years, the Philippines and India have begun to build on further achievements to enhance their bilateral relationship, achieving vital milestones through meaningful commitments. Having worked as Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy of the Philippines in New Delhi from July 2022 to the present, it has been an honor for me to have worked to raise awareness of the interests of the Philippines as well as the commitments between the Philippines and India, especially on the economic front.
India is an important trading partner and one of the centers of economic activity in the Asia-Pacific region. The Embassy of the Philippines in New Delhi has advocated for the Philippines to be the top strategic partner in Southeast Asia, which has the potential to become the top trading partner. In fact, they complement India’s investment and expansion of its studies and development, as well as its data generation and communications (ICT) industries.
This takes into account the Philippines’ growing strength in innovation, its young and professional population, the competitive merit of the English language, and ongoing economic reforms. Both the Philippines and India can get credit for the continued commitment, collaboration, and lessons learned from the country’s exclusives. Experiences.
India is on track to become the third largest economy by 2027 and, in all respects, is expected to overtake Japan and Germany, lately the third and fourth largest economies, respectively. India’s economy also has the fastest developing economy among primary economies, with an average gross domestic product of 5. 5% over the past decade. Last year, India’s economy surpassed that of the United Kingdom in terms of size, making it the fifth largest economy in the world.
For its part, the Philippine government’s foreign policy highlights a socio-economic timetable that aims to reduce poverty to 9% by 2028 and bring the Philippines to “upper middle income” status. Food and energy security is a number one objective of our bilateral negotiations. and multilateral commitments, and with this in mind, the government has issued transparent rules to optimize partnerships to boost agricultural productivity and modernize agricultural infrastructure.
The Philippines also recognizes the role of technologies from emerging areas as resources of innovation opportunities. There are many opportunities for collaboration between the Philippines and India on this front, and it is worth noting the recent status quo in 2019 of the Philippine Space Agency or PHILSA. the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. As part of its mandate, the company is guilty of contributing to and promoting the progress of the Philippines’ national security and progress through, among others, space education, space research, local industry and capability building. .
Shambhu S Kumaran, India’s ambassador to the Philippines, recently said that the Indian government is advancing more capacity building activities as well as a long-term collaboration with the Philippines through the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The Philippines, meanwhile, is aiming for a country with area functions by 2030.
In the pharmaceutical sector, the Philippines sources inputs for the production of goods, such as active pharmaceutical ingredients, from India. Indian pharmaceutical corporations are encouraged to locate their studies and progression services in the Philippines that would employ Filipinos or to identify joint ventures with local companies. pharmaceutical corporations, which would lead to generational movement and capacity building.
Indian pharmaceutical corporations are also encouraged to set up their production facilities in the country as there are great opportunities for Indian investment with the implementation of the country’s universal healthcare program, complemented by the demographic and economic expansion of the Philippines. The Department of Health may visit Indian pharmaceutical corporations to boost the improvement of the Philippines’ ability to expand and manufacture medicines. We can receive a lot of information from India in this regard.
In the IT sector, collaboration between the Philippines and India in the BPO sector has grown exponentially in recent years. Several Indian IT corporations have already established BPO operations in the Philippines, corporations such as WIPRO, TCS, L
This is a smart thing to do, as the Philippines offers telecommunications services and a smart enough uninterrupted power supply. Specialized IT zones offer ready-to-occupy workplaces and production services, building surveillance and IT security systems, as well as comprehensive workplace services.
Since the early 2000s, the Philippines has been the leading provider of BPM voice installations, surpassing all other markets. Today, the sector has demonstrated its ability to evolve by expanding into multi-tower, higher value-added facilities that have attracted investors and locators. from all over the world. By offering more complex and virtual voiceless facilities, the Philippines’ IT sector has been redesigned towards a multi-delivery style and continues to provide business procedure facilities to industries.
The Philippine government is also actively working on the country’s telecommunications and virtual infrastructure. The country aspires to an ICT sector policy ecology that promotes broad market-driven progression of core ICT sectors, a timely playing field, public-private partnerships, strategic alliances with foreign investors, and balanced investments.
The finalization of this policy is a step towards addressing the country’s connectivity needs, which have become more pressing due to the pandemic. With those advancements, this is a wonderful opportunity for the Philippines and India to announce the progress and expansion of the IT industry for mutual advantage. and gain advantages.
Given all of the above, there are obviously reasons to be positive about the Philippines’ economic prospects.
Of course, a sustained and consistent economic expansion will not be imaginable without the preservation of national security. In this regard, the Philippine government is working diligently to pursue the Philippines’ security and defense agenda, the key elements of which come with sovereignty and territorial integrity, the resilience crisis, climate change adaptation, cyber defense, modernization of capabilities and cooperation and security arrangements.
As recently as June this year, the two countries participated in the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) headed by Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique A. Manalo, and the Minister for External Affairs of India, S. Jaishankar.
One of the most important achievements of these bilateral negotiations is the union of the two countries, which in part says: “They press the need for a peaceful settlement of disputes and respect for foreign law, in particular UNCLOS and the 2016 arbitral award. in the South China Sea in this regard. This is a promising development, and the Philippines is grateful to India for its assistance in this vital issue.
With high hopes, and as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the status quo of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and India in November next year, it is possible that the two countries’ commitments will be broader, cooperative and meaningful.
This article was written by John Boitte Santos, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Philippines in New Delhi.