Celebrated every 26th of January, Australia Day festivities started with the Australian Embassy outlining its priorities in the Philippines for 2017.
“Our focus in 2017 is to work closely with the Duterte administration. There’s a lot of work needed to strengthen the Australian relationship across all sectors,” Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Amanda Gorely said in a reception conducted at the Ambassador’s Residence last January 24, 2017.
Extending over 70 years, the Australia-Philippine relations has “grown and encompass an ever increasing people-to-people link; development assistance towards sustainable growth; trade and investment to expand economic ties; defense; and law enforcement cooperation.”
There are now 250,000 Filipinos living in Australia. As of September 2016, more than 10,000 Filipino students are enrolled in Australian schools.
Focus on ASEAN
With the Philippines’ hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit this year and President Rodrigo Duterte as the ASEAN Chair, Ambassador Gorely emphasized that this regional event is also the Australian Embassy’s top priority.
“Australia has been a major dialogue partner of the ASEAN since 1974 and we will pursue that relationship,” Gorely added. She announced that the Prime Minister of Australia and its Defense Minister will be participating in high level meetings of the ASEAN to discuss regional issues.
Sessions with trade commissioners and Australian companies to be conducted at the ASEAN will discuss the growing trade and investment relationships that contribute to jobs and economic growth.
Total trade between Australia and the Philippines was valued at A$4 billion in 2015-16, 43 percent higher than in 2010-11.
The Philippines imports precious metal and copper ores, wheat and beef from Australia. The Philippines, on the other hand, export electrical machinery, iron, steel, aluminum, gold and electric power machinery and parts to Australia.
The total stock of Australian investment in the Philippines was A$10 billion compared to the Philippine’s A$473 million investment in Australia.
Ms. Elodie Journet, Senior Trade Commissioner and Counsellor of the Australian Embassy, added that “Australians are big on regional integration. We see the benefits acting as a region and not under protectionism. So we see how we can further achieve regional economic integration.”
Focus in Mindanao and on Women
Ambassador Gorely also stressed the shift of its development program to the southern part of the Philippines.
She mentioned launching brand new programs for Mindanao including pursuing the peace process. “We support the efforts of the administration to promote peace in Mindanao. We are also looking for commercial opportunities to support economic development there,” the Ambassador added.
According to Gorely, one of the most important elements of Australia’s economic development programs is improving the economic empowerment of women. “This resonates well with the Philippines. We are launching a program called Investing in Women Initiative which will work with the public and private sector to empower women in the labor force,” she explained.
Core Services
On the trade perspective, the four core areas that will be focused on by Australia in the Philippines will be Education, Services, Agribusiness and Infrastructure.
“Education will ramp up our engagement to bring training to current jobs and the jobs of the future including Cyber Security, Big Data, and Analytics,” Journet said.
“There’s a lot of growth in Knowledge Process Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing in our engagement with the Philippines that are beyond call centers. It is moving towards specialized and advanced areas,” she said.
“In clinical coding, we haven’t pursued anything specific at this time but I am looking at how we can create a narrative around how the Philippines and Australia can collaborate in looking through value chains and increase bilateral cooperation in healthcare,” Journet explained. She mentioned the learnings in e-health records and digital health as areas where the two countries can further collaborate.
Journet recognized the ambitious plan of the Philippines in infrastructure where Australia can provide its infrastructure development expertise and engineering solutions.
For agribusiness, Australia is looking at exporting more of its seasonal fruits including citrus and pears.
Jounet emphasized that the Australian market is solution-driven. “It is about understanding what you can actually offer to them that must be a practical solution to an actual problem,” she stressed.
Eagle Broadcasting Corporation is a media partner of the Australia Day festivities.
