THE Department of Trade and Industry (DT) has expressed the Philippines’ interest in the support of the 300 -billion euro European Union (EU) Global Gateway Fund which will allow EU companies including Germany’s private sector to participate in the infrastructure developments in the Philippines.
In his keynote address at the 2022 Philippine-German Business Forum in Makati City yesterday, DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual also invited attendees to look at opportunities in the electric vehicle industry, and information technology-enabled business processing.
Pascual cited Germany’s track record in water storage and management, renewables, waste management, logistics and transportation and disaster mitigation which the government opened for private-public partnership arrangements.
He said the German government and the German private sector can tap the Philippines’ significant green metal reserves of nickel and copper to ensure the supply of these critical resources in support of their country’s full-electrification objectives for automobile industry by 2030.
“In exchange, the Philippines will benefit from Germany’s significant experience and expertise in nickel and copper downstream processing,” Pascual said.
He also cited the abundance of IT-enabled BPO resources in the Philippines with a number of German industry leaders currently operating their own shared services centers in the country including Bosch, Deutsche Bank, Daimler, Fresenius, Lufthansa, Boehringer, and Merck.
Pascual is poised to meet next week with the business chamber in Ní¼rnberg and visit the Siemens Industry 4.0 factory in Amberg.
Siemens is the Philippines’ partner in the establishment of a Industry 4.0 Pilot Factory which forms part of the country’s goal to become an AI Center of Excellence in Southeast Asia.
In 2021, Germany ranked as the Philippines’ 12th major trading partner, 7th export market, and 13th import source.
Philippine exports to Germany grew by 23.6 percent from $2.38 billion in 2020 to $2.94 billion in 2021 due to the growth in the exportation of digital monolithic integrated circuits, semiconductor devices, storage units, and video projectors. Philippine imports from Germany expanded 4.15 percent from $D1.97 billion in 2020 to $2.05 billion in 2021 due to the growth in the importation of materials, accessories and supplies for the manufacture of dice; medicaments; vaccines; and materials for the manufacture of semiconductor devices. – Irma Isip
