Invest more in education, DFA exec urges youth

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Government is pushing the Filipino youth to invest more on their education to prepare them for the competitive world upon graduation.

With the free-trade agreements that Philippines has entered into and the upcoming ASEAN economic integration in 2015, Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura Del Rosario urged the Filipino to strive to become globally competitive.

Del Rosario in her Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)  101 talk  before at least 500 students from various Baguio colleges and universities  at the Saint Louis University Maryheights Campus the other day, explained that APEC generally aims to reduce the costs of doing business for both importers and exporters, to ease doing business across the border, at the border and behind the border.

The Baguio leg of the a nationwide APEC awareness campaign of DFA is part of the promotion of the significance, goals and benefits of APEC to local stakeholders and on what are the current work or engagement of the Philippines in APEC including the country’s hosting of APEC 2015.

Aside from lowering duties and tariffs, through APEC, the country is now enjoying even products that are inaccessible in the past  as the Philippines already has an access and connectivity to the global supply chain, the DFA official explained.

As APEC is about the movement of goods, services, people and capital and with the ASEAN Economic Community 2015 to further open the country for free-trade of products and human capita, Del Rosario also pointed-out the need for domestic reforms especially on investing in human capital for the Filipino workforce to be competitive.

“This is why we are here talking to you, to also encourage you to invest on your education so that you can be (globally) competitive when you graduate,” she said.

Aside from investing in human capital, Del Rosario also cited other domestic reforms that should be prioritized such as building of resilient and sustainable communities, fostering SMEs participation in regional and global market, and  enhancement of regional economic integration agenda.

With the Philippines involvement in APEC, it would surely affect every Filipino, every community and the country as a whole, so everyone must do his share in ensuring  readiness to compete in the regional and global economy,  Del Rosario urged the students.