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MANILA, Philippines – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Singaporean President Halimah Yacob on Monday witnessed the signing of eight deals between the two countries mostly on economic cooperation.
Halimah, the first female president and first Malay head of Singapore in 47 years, is in Manila for a five-day state visit.
The agreements signed by the two leaders in Malacañang are as follows:
- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Education and Temasek Foundation International and Nanyang Polytechnic International Programme on Innovations and Teaching and Learning of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) with Design Thinking
- MOU between the Department of Agriculture and Enterprise Singapore on Agricultural Cooperation and Related Activities;
- MOU between Department of Trade and Industry of the Republic of the Philippines, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority of the Republic of the Philippines, and Skills Future Singapore Agency of the Republic of Singapore on cooperation on human capital development and rescaling and skills upgrading of workforce;
- MOU between the Development Bank of the Philippines and Infrastructure Asia Singapore on knowledge sharing to support infrastructure development;
- MOU between Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and Public Utilities Board;
- MOU between the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Republic of the Philippines and Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth of the Republic of Singapore on Cultural Cooperation;
- MOU between Infrastructure Asia and Public-Private Partnership Center on assisting Philippine local implementing agencies with the development or implementation of PPP projects;
- MOU between the National Privacy Commission of the Republic of the Philippines and The Personal Data Protection Commission of the Republic of Singapore on Cooperation in Personal Data Protection.
In a joint statement, the two leaders said they committed to “further intensify trade and investment links, mindful of the goals we have set for ourselves under the Philippines-Singapore Action Plan (PSAP).”
Duterte added he rallied for Halimah’s support to encourage the participation of Singapore in the country’s priority investment areas and to advance collaboration between the two countries in agriculture, education and training, science and technology, tourism and cultural exchanges.
According to Duterte, Singapore is the Philippines’ second highest source of investments in 2018, committing a total of P21.18 billion, or 11.8 percent of total foreign pledges.
Singapore is also its seventh largest trading partner with two-way trade at US$10.49 billion.
Duterte also stated that he and Halimah discussed gains and ways to help bring lasting peace and development to the Mindanao region, particularly the progress in establishing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
“We discussed ways by which our cooperation could help contribute in bringing just and lasting peace and meaningful progress and development in Mindanao – one of the greatest and most crucial undertakings that our nation has embarked upon,” he reported.
For her part, Halimah described the economic ties between the two countries as “strong and robust,” but they both agreed to do even more together. She added there is also room to further boost trade and investment flows.
“We hope to make progress on updating the Singapore-Philippines avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement and the expansion of the Bilateral Air Transport Agreement, which will increase connectivity and create more opportunities for collaboration and growth,” she said in her statement.
Aside from boosting economic exchanges, Duterte also expressed interest in deepening defense and security ties with Singapore by strengthening the defense dialogues and training exchanges between the two countries’ military and special forces.
“We talked about deepening our cooperation in defense and security, which includes strengthening defense dialogues and training exchanges between the military and special forces,” Duterte said.
Halimah’s visit came as the Philippines and Singapore celebrate the 50th year of diplomatic relations.
She said there are more than 200,000 Filipinos in Singapore and that her country deeply appreciates the contributions of the Filipino community to Singapore’s society and economy. RRD (with details from Correspondent Rosalie Coz)
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