Phl, Germany agree to move forward on Fraport

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and Germany have agreed to pursue and move forward a bilateral agenda and speed up the Fraport issue for a closure beneficial to both countries.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said he and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle talked about carving out the Fraport issue and trying to move forward with the bilateral agenda during his visit to Germany early this month.

“Germany is an important partner economically to the Philippines. We said we would look for ways to move forward in terms of economic opportunities. But we said that at the same time we would try to address what we could do about coming to a closure on Fraport because what remains is the compensation package,” he said.

“We said we are working on a fair and early resolution. It is now with the court and we have to wait for the result of the legal body, so that is how we left that and I think we discussed briefly whether a separate track will be pursued and I said that could be a possibility, but the bottom line is we would pursue and move forward the bilateral agenda and we would also try to speed up the Fraport for the benefit of both countries.”

Del Rosario said he received an official invitation to visit Germany after German Minister of State Werner Hoyer visited Manila.

“I mentioned that the Philippines has a long standing relationship with Germany and I would like to think that the Fraport issue is not the sum total of our relations, that there might be a way that we can abstract these contentious issues and deal with it separately, enabling us to move forward with the main bilateral agenda,” he said.

Del Rosario said with Germany being a very important partner of the Philippines and the long time friendship and cooperation, he believed Germany was convinced that the two countries should move forward the bilateral agenda and look at Fraport separately.

“This was a very historic meeting in my view because we did not have bilateral (meetings) with them in 10 years since this Fraport became problematic. There was a freezing of relationship so we said we would work on evaluating where we are, making that assessment and trying to chart a roadmap in terms of where we want to go from here,” he said.

Del Rosario said Germany, an important partner of the Philippines in terms of investments, has over 100 important companies investing in the country.

“That is growing in number as we go along. So I think since we are trying to attract foreign investors we should try to improve (the investment) climate so that we can get even more German companies to invest here,” he said.

Germany is the Philippines’ number one export market in Europe in terms of trade.

Germany is the number two tourist market of the Philippines next to the United Kingdom, Del Rosario said.

In terms of official development assistance (ODA) with a combination of grants and soft loans, Germany ranks third next to the United States and Japan.

Del Rosario conveyed to Westerwelle that the Philippines regards Germany as one of its strongest economic, political and cultural partners, and trade and investment between the two countries have increased despite the Fraport issue.

Del Rosario and Westerwelle met in Berlin on Dec. 7 to discuss ways to deepen economic, political and cultural cooperation.

This is the first official visit to Germany by a Philippine Foreign Affairs secretary in 10 years, after then Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople visited Germany.

The secretary highlighted the robust growth and expansion of German companies in Philippine economic zones.

Former German Ambassador to Manila Christian-Ludwig Weber-Lortsch urged the Aquino administration “to do away with the ghosts of the past” created by the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 project and bring the parties involved to the negotiating table to facilitate a legal, fair and timely solution for an inherited problem.