THE state visit of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to India this week is expected to boost the upskilling of Filipinos in the information and communication technology industry, especially in artificial intelligence, as well as promote tourism in the Philippines through the ease of visa access for Indian tourists and direct air connectivity between Manila and New Delhi by October.
Philippine Ambassador to India Jose Francisco Ignacio said the state visit would also boost the promotion of the Philippines as a location setting for Bollywood films as well as strengthen the current key areas of corporations, such as defense, agriculture, health, and science and technology.
Ignacio, in an interview in India, said the state visit of the President is the fitting conclusion to the celebration of 75 years of diplomatic ties between the Philippines and India that started in 2024.
He said that from being friends, the Philippines and India are now strategic partners.
“We hope that with the President’s visit, the level of our relations will also be raised, not just in name, but in actual concrete cooperation,” he said.
Ignacio said one area of cooperation is the ICT industry, which provides employment to around 1.8 million to 1.9 million Filipinos in the Philippines and contributes to up to 8 percent of the gross domestic product of the country.
He said that while the two nations are the leading countries in the ICT industry, particularly in the business process outsourcing and business process management (BPO/BPM) fields, India is now making a headway in the AI category, which would benefit the Philippines.
“So, the Indian IT companies will play a big role in the upskilling of our countrymen in the IT-BPM sector because they are the ones developing many AI technologies today,” he said.
Ignacio said the Philippines is also taking advantage of India having the biggest population in the world by enticing their tourists to the visit the country through the visa-free scheme for Indian nationals that the Philippines started to implement in June, the establishment of direct flights between Manila and New Delhi by Air India that would start in October, and the invitation to Bollywood filmmakers to shoot films in the Philippines.
“The directive of the President is to make Indian nationals a major source for tourism into the Philippines,” he said.
“So, we think by October we shall have in place the basic criteria to drive Indian tourism into the Philippines. Ease of visa access, direct air connectivity, and of course, the Philippines is very beautiful,” he added.
The President left yesterday morning for a five-day state visit to India where he is set to meet with Indian leaders led by President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pursue stronger bilateral ties and more areas of cooperation between Manila and New Delhi.
The President, accompanied by First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos, Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Teresa Lazaro and Acting Communication Secretary Dave Gomez departed from the Villamor Airbase at 10:44 a.m. They arrived in India at 2:20 p.m. (4:50 pm in Manila).
He is set to meet with the Filipino community in New Delhi in the evening.
The President named Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III, and Education Secretary Sonny Angara as caretakers to oversee the daily operations of the Office of the President while he is abroad.
Marcos is expected to discuss with Indian leaders closer cooperation in terms of economy, defense and security, politics, trade and investment, and how to further invigorate people-to-people exchanges between the two nations, as well as pursue more investment opportunities with India’s business leaders.
“I travel to India knowing that our commonalities will lead us to a deeper, broader, and more meaningful bilateral cooperation, both in the immediate future and up to our longer-term horizons, that will ultimately serve to promote peace, the stability, and prosperity for our two nations and the wider Indo-Pacific region,” he said in his departure speech delivered at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.
“There is much potential for cooperation with India that will mutually benefit our peoples. We intend to explore these by charting a plan of cooperation across a broad spectrum of shared interests: from defense, to trade, investment, health, pharmaceuticals, connectivity, agriculture, tourism, and many other areas,” he added.
The President said he brought along several Cabinet secretaries who will make certain that the vision of a close strategic relationship between the Philippines and India becomes a reality as soon as possible.
In his delegation are Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Secretary of Trade and Industry Cristina Roque, Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go, and several other Cabinet ministers.
The President is set to address the Observer Research Foundation to talk about the country’s foreign policies and meet with business leaders in New Delhi and Bangalore during his visit.
“There are already Indian multinational companies that are operating in the Philippines in IT-BPM, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications industries, and many, many more other sectors, “ he said.
“I will personally lead a business delegation to New Delhi and Bengaluru to meet with the captains of their industries, especially in the IT sector, to explore potential investment opportunities for both sides,” he said.
Marcos said he wants his visit to bring concrete benefits to Filipinos, such as more affordable medicine and greater connectivity and food security.
He said he wants to maximize the opportunities in trade and investment with India, which is the world’s fourth-largest economy, and looks forward to a productive visit and much closer Philippines-India relations.
This is Marcos’ first visit to India and the second state visit of a Philippine president to India since the state visit of then-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in October 2007. The last visit of a Philippine president to India was by then President Rodrigo Duterte in January 2017 when he went on an official visit to attend the 25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Summit.
