Photo: vlada.cz
On Thursday, 14 March, Prime Minister Petr Fiala met with the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. The meeting of the leaders was a follow-up to the Prime Minister's visit to the Philippines last year. The main topics were the promotion of mutual trade, defence cooperation, labour migration and current geopolitical issues.
The Philippines is one of the Czech Republic's key partners in the Indo-Pacific. "I am pleased that today we were able to follow up on our meeting last year in Manila, which contributed to strengthening economic relations between our countries. Concrete business projects are already underway. Czech companies are very interested in entering the Philippine market. There is a high potential for mutual cooperation, especially in the fields of agriculture, defence, aviation and energy." said the Prime Minister Petr Fiala. The second meeting of the Joint Economic Cooperation Committee and the Joint Defence Cooperation Committee is expected to take place in Manila later this year. These formats of mutual cooperation help to identify new opportunities and concrete business projects. The Philippines will also be visited next week by a business mission of Czech food and agricultural companies led by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Mark Výborny.
The Czech Prime Minister supported the offers of Czech companies in the defence industry. "We are interested in helping with the process of modernizing the Philippine military. This includes the possible supply of aircraft, radars, armoured personnel carriers and other military equipment. We are also supporting the transfer of technology and know-how for the possible development of the Philippine aerospace industry," said the Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
Labour migration was also an important topic of the meeting. Currently, there are approximately 6,500 workers from the Philippines employed in the Czech Republic, mainly in the manufacturing industry, with whom domestic employers are very satisfied. As of 1 May 2024, the annual quota for applying for a worker card at the Manila embassy will be increased to 10550. The leaders also discussed the current situation in the South China Sea.
The Philippines is one of the Czech Republic's important trading partners in Southeast Asia. Last year, bilateral trade turnover reached CZK 13.5 billion. Exports of Czech companies to the Philippines increased by almost a third year-on-year to CZK 1.7 billion in 2023.
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