The Philippines and the United Kingdom (UK) have committed to strengthen their cooperation on investment in key sectors such as aerospace, electronics, automotive and pharmaceuticals.
Both countries will also pursue measures that will boost bilateral trade through the Philippines’ preferential access to the UK market under the latter’s GSP Enhanced Framework.
These were the highlights of the 2nd Philippines-UK Economic Dialogue held virtually on August 19 and led by Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo and Ambassador Daniel Pruce .
In a joint partnership statement, both countries also committed to pursue innovation and industrial collaboration; foster micro, small and medium enterprise development; enable key reforms and deepen programme partnerships, including through the UK Prosperity Fund in areas like health, education, low carbon energy, infrastructure, finance, business environment, intellectual property, and digital economy.
The Intellectual Property of the Philippines and the British Embassy have signed a memorandum of understanding on Technical Assistance under the Financial Sector and Intellectual Property Component of the Prosperity Fund.
“We have seen digital startups rise up to the challenge posed by the COVID19 pandemic and we want them to thrive in the digital economy. Hopefully, these MSMEs would also be able to link with their British counterparts through the innovation and industrial collaboration that DTI is proposing,” Rodolfo said.
In 2019, UK is the Philippines’ 18th largest trading partner (out of 226), 18th export market (out of 220), 21st import source (out of 194), and 15th largest source of approved investments.
Total trade with the UK amounted to about $1.3 billion. UK is likewise the largest trading partner of the Philippines in Europe outside of the EU.
This is the first bilateral dialogue of the Philippines outside Asean since the onset of the Covid-19 health emergency.
