Transcript: Philippines insights and opportunities
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Anthony Weymouth ‒ Senior Trade Commissioner Philippines
Anthony is responsible for the Philippines and Micronesia. With his team, he aims to help Australian companies capture increased export and investment opportunities, attract productive foreign direct investment into Australia, and promote Australia’s education sector.
He has worked for the Australian Government for 15 years and has spent time in the United States, Mexico, Malaysia, the Pacific and Australia. He has more than 25 years of experience in international trade across a range of sectors and markets, and understands the challenges of operating in different countries.
Transcript
>>Anthony Weymouth: On the 1st of January 2010 the Free Trade Agreement between ASEAN countries and Australia, and New Zealand, since that time two way trade between Australia and the Philippines has increased to be now valued at 3 billion dollars per annum. Australia has seen significant gains in food and beverage products, as well as, particularly in the services sector.
There are opportunities for Australian companies in the food and beverage sector in the Philippines as a direct result of the Free Trade Agreement; 97% of Australian goods --- products and services that come into the Philippines now are in fact duty free. Key sectors where we are seeing opportunities include dairy, beef and lamb, and just recently fresh produce. I’m pleased to say that the Philippines government and the Australian government have agreed on new protocols that will enable the treatment of Australian produce in transit on its way to the Philippines. We see this as a new opportunity and look forward to working with Australian companies to capture that opportunity.
The Philippines government has placed a lot of emphasis on public private partnerships (PPPs). In fact, there’s currently 17 projects in the pipeline.
For the last 20 or 30 years the government and the private sector has not invested in infrastructure. This is across a wide range of infrastructure requirements, including energy, ports, airports, road and rail. Austrade is well placed to help Australia companies reduce the risk of entering the Philippines market.
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