The Philippines and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed the terms of reference (TOR) for the negotiations of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the first step towards the proposed bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries.
In a statement, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the TOR was signed by DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual for the Philippines and Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi for UAE at the sidelines of the United Nations 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Abu Dhabi on December 2.
The TOR provides guidelines on the conduct of the negotiations and the scope and coverage of the proposed CEPA.
The CEPA is envisioned to expand the flow of goods and services exports to the UAE and the greater Gulf region, generate more investments from UAE, and create more opportunities for professionals and service providers in the UAE.
The CEPA with the UAE will operationalize the Philippines’ trade strategy to enter new markets as envisaged in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2023 and the Philippine Export Development Plan 2023-2028.
The UAE is the Philippines’ 17th largest trading partner and the top export market among all Gulf Cooperation Council member states. It is the second home to one of the largest populations of overseas Filipinos in the Middle East, as well as well-known and home-grown Filipino brands and businesses.
Also in Abu Dhabi, Pascual on November 30 signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, head of the UAE Ministry of Investment for the development of data center projects with a total capacity of up to 500 megawatts that will strengthen the Philippines’ digital infrastructure.
On December 1, Pascual held a series of business meetings at the sidelines of the COP28 to explore potential collaboration on sustainability initiatives.
In his meeting with officials of the International Business Machines Corp. , Pascual pitched the Philippines as data hub for Asean while in his meeting with DAMAC executives, he explored potential partnerships in infrastructure projects.
Pascual also sat down with Dubai Islamic Banking (DIB) officials to highlight DIB’s potential investment in the Philippines as well as the country’s initiatives Islamic banking, and Islamic bonds, such as sukuks and green sukuks.
The DTI said power technology company Turbulent expressed interest in establishing test centers for hydraulics in the Philippines which is essential for the research and development component of Turbulent.
The DTI said Energy firm Masdar discussed the expansion plans of Masdar in the Philippines on geothermal, wind , hydro and solar power. Irma Isip