By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
A BUSINESS delegation from Canada consisting of 300 members is visiting the Philippines next month to explore collaborations in food security, clean technology, infrastructure, and knowledge and communications technology (ICT), the Canadian embassy said.
At a briefing on Thursday, Senior Trade Commissioner Guy Boileau said that this will likely be the biggest Trade Mission Canada has sent, dwarfing the contingents sent elsewhere to Asia.
“That is the largest Team Canada Trade Mission that we have now done. It is larger than the delegations sent to Japan and Korea,” Mr. Boileau told reporters.
“It speaks to the interest of Canada at large in engaging with the Philippines,” he added.
He said potential investors are excited by the Philippines’ growing economy, English-speaking population, young demographics, and significant economic reforms.
“That is a terrific country that’s seen increasingly as a hub when it comes to servicing other countries within the region,” he said.
“This can be a rustic that’s English speaking, so it makes things much easier. You furthermore mght have a really young and really tech-savvy population, and people are elements that resonate once we seek advice from our firms,” he added.
He said the standout reforms are the amendments to the Public Service Act and Public-Private Partnership Code, the liberalization in key sectors reminiscent of renewable energy, and the passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE).
“Those are all very positive signals to international investors and exporters, including those in Canada, that at the top of the day are searching for a stable and predictable business environment,” he said.
“And what we have now seen over the past few years is that the Philippines is indeed moving into that direction. That’s quite interesting and promising for partnerships and collaboration,” he added.
The trade mission, which can run from Dec. 4 to six, may even be attended by 20 industry associations, including the Business Council of Canada and the Canada-ASEAN Business Council.
“Along with that, we have now representation from most of our provinces and territories. The truth is, we have now a minister from the province of Alberta who can be joining the delegation,” he said.
“The delegation is (composed) of roughly 60% small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and 20% to 30% large Canadian firms. So this is admittedly necessary because we all know the importance that the Philippines attaches to supporting and scaling up SMEs,” he added.
The delegation will explore priority industries aligned with the objectives of the administration, reminiscent of food security, clean technology, infrastructure, and ICT.
“Now we have firms coming in from agro-industrial solutions and the method food and beverage as well. Inside clean tech, we (have delegation members involved in) energy efficiency, water and wastewater management, decarbonization, carbon capture, and so forth,” he said.
“The third priority sector is infrastructure. We all know that this may be very necessary for President Marcos. So we do have firms which are coming in from this sector specifically on master planning, engineering, and nuclear energy,” he added.
ICT will likely be represented by firms within the financial technology solutions, satellite communications, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence industries.
“Those are the 4 priority sectors of the Team Canada Trade Mission. Now we have other sectors which are also joining. Now we have firms in defense, aerospace and education,” he said.
The delegation will include Canadian firms which have not yet been significantly involved with the Philippines, he noted.
Mr. Boileau said that international trade plays a key role within the Canadian economy, which points to the importance of diversifying trade.
“After we speak about growth within the Canadian economy, we cannot speak about that without talking about international trade, and that features the importance of trade diversification,” he said.
“We do know that over-concentration may not at all times be an excellent thing, so we do try to offer a platform and rules in order that our firms can tap into as many global markets as possible,” he added.
He said negotiations for the ASEAN-Canada free trade agreement are currently ongoing and are set to be concluded next 12 months.
“Now we have had several rounds of negotiations. Our leaders have committed to concluding those negotiations by the top of 2025,” he said.
Meanwhile, Andrew Green, political and public affairs counselor on the Canadian Embassy, said that the trade mission is an element of Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy declared two years ago.
“This trade mission is an element of the Indo-Pacific strategy announced in 2022. So it’s disconnected from what has happened within the electoral campaign within the States and the subsequent administration,” he said.
“I might not link those two together. But definitely, a focused trade within the Indo-Pacific will help Canada balance against any particular disruptions across the international system,” he added.
