Spain eyes Phl as platform for Asian expansion

MANILA, Philippines - Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said that the Philippines should serve as platform for Spain to enter markets in Asia and the Pacific.

Garicia-Margallo made the statement at the closing of the 7th Philippine-Spanish Tribuna, held last Oct. 20 and 21 in Valencia, Spain, where participants discussed new ways to strengthen relations between the Philippines and Spain in the fields of economy, culture and education.

The Philippine-Spanish Tribuna, whose first edition was held in Madrid in 2005, is a yearly platform for dialogue that Casa Asia, the public diplomacy agency of the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry, offers to the civil society of both countries in an effort to find new initiatives and instruments of rapprochement in order to take advantage of opportunities represented by their historical ties at a time when Asia is improving its relations with Europe and Latin America.

As Garcia-Margallo pointed out, “we must get involved in the trade in the Asia-Pacific region and to do so we must be present there and the Philippines can serve as a platform,” stressing that Spanish exports and investments should be increased in order “to grow in the Philippines and, along with the Philippines, in Asian markets.”

On the other hand, Tourism Secretary, Ramon Jimenez, who headed the Philippine delegation to the said Tribuna, admitted that the Philippines “has to simplify and facilitate procedure so that investments will be more fluid…,” adding that “now is the time to work together and that after 400 years, the Philippines hopes to be rediscovered.”